Milbank LLP (“Milbank”) represented the joint lead arrangers for the senior secured first lien credit facilities and the joint bookrunning managers for the senior unsecured notes used to finance the acquisition of Ferro Corporation (“Ferro”) (NYSE: FOE) by Prince International Corporation (“Prince”) in a transaction valued at approximately $2.1 billion. Ferro is a publicly listed leading global supplier of technology-based functional coatings and color solutions. Prince is a portfolio company of American Securities LLC (“American Securities”). In conjunction with the closing of the transaction, the companies combined with Chromaflo Technologies Corporation (“Chromaflo”), also an American Securities portfolio company. The combination of Prince, Ferro and Chromaflo resulted in a global diversified business with sales of approximately $2 billion.
In connection with the transactions, Milbank represented affiliates of Credit Suisse, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, KeyBank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Bank of America as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunning managers.
Following the acquisition, the newly-formed company will be renamed Vibrantz Technologies Inc. (“Vibrantz”) and will be headquartered in Houston, Texas with 63 manufacturing sites across six continents. Vibrantz will operate in three business segments: advanced materials, color solutions and performance coatings.
The Milbank team was led by New York-based Global Leveraged Finance partners Marcus Dougherty, Spencer Pepper and Lauren Hanrahan and Capital Markets partner Rod Miller, along with Capital Markets special counsel Teresa Chen and associates Juyon Kang, Eliza Biswas, Camille Gibeault, Nathan Hamill, Janelle Vacchiano, Maria Velasco and Zachary Winters.
