Swedish vegetable oil refiner Karlshamns Group announced recently that subsidiary Binol AB has acquired Raisio Chemicals biodegradable lubricants business. Binol said the acquisition, which took effect Jan. 1, will enhance its position in the Nordic market, even as the company works to increase exports to other regions.
The acquisition is entirely in line with our strategy and further consolidates Binols position as number one in the market for vegetable technical oils, Binol President Magnus Jorsmo said.
Raisio, which is based in Raisio, Finland, sells chemicals primarily for the papermaking industry. Its lubricants business has annual revenues of approximately Swedish Kronur 25 million (U.S. $3.4 million), with sales occurring mostly in Finland and the Baltic states. Binol said that Raisios products, which were marketed under the BioSafe brand name, generally correspond to its own range of lubricants for the forestry and construction industries. The acquisition also gives new technology to Binol, which is based in Karlshamn, Sweden.
Publicly held Karlshamns Group does not disclose financial information about Binol, but Jorsmo said the subsidiary is much larger than Raisios biodegradable lubes business. In addition to hydraulic oils for mobile equipment, it markets metalworking fluids – enough to rank among the top five fluid suppliers in the Nordic market.
Binol sells products under its own brand name only in the Nordic countries but gleans approximately one-quarter of its revenues by supplying other lubricant marketers, mostly in the United States and Canada but also in Northern Europe. The company has said that its biggest growth opportunities are in export markets.
The Raisio business is Binols second acquisition in nine months. It purchased Aarhus Uniteds technical oils operations in April 2003. Following the latest deal, Binol plans to open a subsidiary in Finland.