Tel Aviv-ICL Performance Products, a unit of Israel Chemicals Ltd., said Jan. 13 that it has acquired substantially all the business operations and assets of the industrial water treatment business unit of Henkel KGaA for $89 million. The addition will move ICL Performance annual revenues to $1.1 billion. Henkel Water Treatment, a major supplier of European water treatment chemicals, will become a part of the ICL Performance Products segment, giving the segment annual revenues of approximately $1.1 billion. As part of this transaction, ICL will acquire the shares of Henkel Concorde, a French company active in the water treatment field. Currently, HWT employs approximately 180 people in sales, service, and R&D and in the production plant in Henkel Concorde. As a result of the acquisition, ICL will employ most of these employees. Within Henkel’s portfolio the water treatment business is a non-core activity. In 2006, the business unit had sales of about $77 million, gross margin of approximately 53 percent, and operating margin of approximately 13 percent, all based on un-audited data.
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