Huron Capital Partners invest $20M in Valentus Specialty Chemicals

Valentus Specialty Chemicals isn’t the first specialty chemicals business Huron Capital Partners has backed in the last decade. It's not the second, third, or fourth. The new specialty coatings platform, led by industry veteran Ray Chlodney, is the ninth in 10 years.

Huron Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in downtown Detroit, got its start in the specialty chemicals industry with a company called Quest Specialty Chemicals, which specialized in coatings, films, and adhesives. Huron Capital Partners sold its principal position in Quest in 2011, but still retains a piece of the successful investment.

"We founded Valentus to do something like what we did with Quest," says Mike Beauregard, senior partner with Huron Capital Partners.

Valentus Specialty Chemicals plans to spend about $20 million acquiring regional specialty coatings producers to build a company with technically advanced and environmentally friendly reactive coating solutions. Huron Capital Partners expects it will take a significant bite out of an $18 billion industry by serving a variety of end markets and geographies.

"There are lots of applications," Beauregard says.

Huron Capital Partners launched in 1999 and has raised more than $1.1 billion in investment capital through four funds since then. Its portfolio companies have employed over 7,500 people throughout North America. Its current roster of portfolio firms employs 2,000 people in North America.

Huron Capital Partners currently employs a staff of 23 employees and a handful of interns from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. It has hired five people over the last year, including a vice president of business development, a controller, a transactions vice president, and two analysts.

"We plan to hire as many as 4-5 people over the next 12 months," Beauregard says.

Source: Mike Beauregard, senior partner with Huron Capital Partners
Writer: Jon Zemke

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