SCHENECTADY, NY – SI Group announced an agreement to sell the majority of its global industrial resin businesses and its Brazilian specialty business to ASK Chemicals, a portfolio company of private equity firm Rhône Group LLC.

The transaction includes SI Group’s industrial resins products and associated manufacturing sites in Rio Claro, Brazil; Ranjangaon, India; and Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa; as well as licensed technology and multiple tolling agreements globally. ASK Chemicals, headquartered in Hilden, Germany, is a market leader in the foundry materials sector and manufactures binders, coatings, feeders, filters and release agents, as well as metallurgical products including inoculants, inoculation wires and master alloys for iron casting. The deal is expected to close later this year.

“While the industrial resins business has long been a part of the SI Group portfolio, the decision to sell this portion of the business affords us the opportunity to reshape our portfolio,” said David Bradley, President and CEO of SI Group. “The sale of this business provides proprietary technology and know-how in the industrial resins business to ASK while realigning our focus around performance additives.”

SI Group will carve out related businesses at these four sites, including the manufacture of global rubber and adhesives and oilfield products, as well as foundry products in Brazil, and will operate tolling agreements with ASK.

SI Group, Schenectady, New York, is a leading global developer and manufacturer of performance additives, process solutions, pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates, with strong positions in the plastics, oilfield, rubber, fuels and lubricants, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and industrial resins industries. The company operates more than 30 manufacturing facilities on five continents with approximately $2 billion in annual sales, and more than 3,000 employees worldwide. SI Group is a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners.