Verdant Specialty Solutions, a global specialty chemical company, announced the acquisition of Baze Chemical.
Baze is an ethoxylate specialty chemical company based in Odessa, Texas, serving customers in the oil and gas production, water treatment, and mining industries. Baze was acquired from its founder, Mr. Curtis Baze.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Through this acquisition, Verdant continues to expand its manufacturing footprint in the US while positioning itself as a long-term partner for specialty ethoxylation on the Gulf Coast. The company also broadens its portfolio of surfactants and other specialty chemistries for the energy and industrial segments.
Founded in 1993, Baze has 82 employees and four facilities strategically located along the US Gulf Coast. The business is recognized as a customer-focused partner for chemistry formulations in the highly competitive and evolving energy sector.
Included in the acquisition is Baze’s 130,000-square foot surfactants manufacturing and custom alkoxylation facility in Palestine, Texas. Built in 2016, the state-of-the-art batch plant affords Verdant with one of the newest, most reliable Gulf Coast sites for production of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide derivatives. The plant features six flexible reactors, abundant oxide storage, and has significant capacity for growth.
The Baze footprint also includes a manufacturing and R&D facility in Liberty, Texas, which specializes in a range of fatty acids and derivatives, fatty amines salts, fatty amine acetates, surfactants, quaternary ammonium, aminophosphonates, and polymers. Additionally, Baze offers corrosion inhibitors, emulsion breakers, paraffin inhibitors, scale inhibitors and water clarifiers and has two advanced formulation labs, blending and warehousing facilities close to oilfield customers in Odessa Texas and New Iberia, Louisiana.
Baze oilfield products have potential applications in Verdant’s core markets of personal care, home and hygiene, agrochemicals, and paints and coatings. Both companies will benefit from a broader, more diverse portfolio of chemistries and market segment expertise. Following this acquisition, the Verdant portfolio includes more than 375 surfactants and specialty solutions.
The acquisition of Baze Chemical is Verdant’s second add-on investment in six months since the business was acquired by Los Angeles-based private equity firm, OpenGate Capital, through a corporate carve-out from Solvay.
Verdant Chief Executive Officer, John Foley, said, “I have long admired the business that Curtis Baze built. The Verdant team is honored and excited that he has chosen us to take it to the next level. Baze Chemical has a great reputation in the oilfield business, and we have surfactant products that they will now be able to offer these customers. Also, acquiring specialty ethoxylation capacity on the Gulf Coast has been Verdant’s number one priority, and the Palestine plant in Texas is an ideal solution. We will build our brand on safe, efficient, flexible operations while offering long term supply reliability with competitive economics.”
“We are thrilled to join Verdant and look forward to leveraging our complementary portfolios in a way that benefits our customers. I’m pleased to play a role in fueling Verdant’s overall growth and further expansion into industrial sectors such as energy, water treatment, and natural resources,” said Baze, who will be staying with the company to help ensure a seamless integration.
Verdant Specialty Solutions is a portfolio company of OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm. Its surfactants are used in some of the world’s most recognizable body care, haircare, and homecare brands.