Press Releases

Kurita Water Industries Ltd. ("Kurita") announced today that it has decided to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Avista Technologies, Inc. (Head Office: California, US; “A-US”), which manufactures and sells water treatment chemicals, and Avista Technologies (UK) Ltd. (Head Office: UK; “A-UK”), through Kurita America Holdings Inc. (Head Office: Delaware, U.S.) and Kurita Europe GmbH (Head Office: Germany), which are its subsidiaries, and has signed a stock transfer agreement with four members of the senior management of A-US and A-UK, who are shareholders. The acquisition price is 81.8 million US dollars (approx. 9.2 billion yen).

A-US specializes in RO chemicals. RO chemicals are water treatment chemicals applied to reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, which are one of the components of water treatment facilities. Besides manufacturing and selling many types of RO chemicals, A-US also offers services such as RO membrane cleaning and has many customers, mostly in the US, across a wide range of industries, including the mining, chemical, oil, offshore oil field, and food and beverage industries, and local government. Meanwhile, A-UK conducts a similar business in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region under licenses granted by A-US.

Kurita Group will combine the RO chemicals of A-US with its own unique RO chemicals. This will enable the Group to expand its lineup of products, which contribute mainly to stabilizing RO membrane treatment, reducing the labor involved in equipment operation management for the treatment, and lowering its cost, while proposing a wide range of products to customers. Moving forward, Kurita Group will accelerate the expansion of sales of RO chemicals globally and strengthen services related to RO membranes through the exchange of technologies and knowhow with A-US.

As a leading global water treatment company, Kurita Group will continue its efforts to optimize and strengthen its business portfolio and platforms. Kurita Group will also grow through M&A and business alliances with strategic partners and create new values to customers through its comprehensive solutions.