Polypore International Inc. agreed to sell itself to industrial
conglomerate 3M Co. and Japan's Asahi Kasei Corp. in a two-part
deal that values the filtration company at about $2.7 billion.
Including debt, the deal is valued at about $3.2 billion. Asahi
Kasei will buy Charlotte, N.C.-based Polypore's energy storage
business for $2.2 billion, while 3M will pay $1 billion for the
company's separations media business.
The deals are contingent on each other and require approvals
from regulators and Polypore shareholders.
Asahi Kasei, a Tokyo-based maker of fibers and textiles, said it
would pay $60.50 a share, a 28.4% premium to the 30-day average of
Polypore's share price. Monday's deal is the latest in a wave of
acquisitions for Japanese companies over the past month despite the
weaker yen.
3M, meanwhile, will boost its purification business through the
deal. 3M, which is best-known for products like Scotch tape and
Post-it Notes, also has benefited from stronger sales of
water-filtration products in China and other developing countries
where pollution fears are growing in recent quarters. 3M said the
purchase would broaden its array of technology used for filtering
out very tiny particles in such fields as pharmaceuticals and water
treatment.
Polypore's separations business is a provider of microporous
membranes and modules for filtration with sales of about $210
million in the 12 months ended in September.
3M, which posted $31.8 billion in sales in 2014, expects the
deal to hurt earnings by three cents in the first year after
closing.
James R. Hagerty contributed to this article.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com and Atsuko
Fukase at atsuko.fukase@wsj.com
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