Clearlake's American technical textile firm Unifrax to acquire Lydall

With its leading technologies and 23 manufacturing facilities around the world, Lydall is well positioned to capitalise on growth in clean air filtration and electric vehicle adoption, among many other attractive markets, the companies said in a joint press release.

“The combination of Unifrax and Lydall creates a global specialty materials platform with new cutting-edge technologies in advanced filtration, electric vehicle battery systems, and energy saving applications,” said John Dandolph, president and CEO of Unifrax. “The addition of Lydall’s people, technologies, and assets to the Unifrax portfolio will help accelerate our innovation pipeline and creates a world class platform capable of solving the world’s most pressing energy consumption, environmental and filtration challenges.”

Sara Greenstein, president and CEO of Lydall, added, “We are excited about the combination of Lydall and Unifrax. With this transaction, we are creating a leader in specialty filtration and advanced materials with over 250 years of combined expertise and experience delivering innovative and compelling solutions to customers worldwide.”

“The addition of Lydall to the Unifrax portfolio and its strong capabilities in advanced filtration creates a global platform with significant scale that together can accelerate each company’s respective compelling growth plans,” said José E Feliciano, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake, and Colin Leonard, partner at Clearlake, in a joint statement.

Morgan Stanley & Co LLC acted as lead financial advisor, J P Morgan acted as financial advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal counsel to Unifrax in the transaction. BofA Securities is acting as exclusive financial advisor and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is acting as legal counsel to Lydall in connection with the transaction.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)