Coventya

Coventya

Type	limited company
Industry	Chemical Industry
Founded	1927 then known as Société Continentale Parker
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Dr. T. Costa Chief Executive Officer Torsten Becker Chief Financial Officer
Products	Specialty Chemicals for surface finishing
Revenue	approx 100 million euros[1]
Employees	400 approx
Website	www.coventya.com

Coventya Group is in the specialty chemicals industry for electrolytic surface finishing, including the processes relating to metal deposits through chemical reduction (such as electroless nickel) plating. Its processes are used in the so-called GMF (General Metal Finishing) industry.^[2]

The group is present in more than 40 countries, employs more than 400 people (2010) and has a turnover of more than 100 million Euros.^[3] The group was created in 1927 as Société Continentale Parker.^[4] The company was formerly part of the Chemetall group located in Frankfurt, Germany.

Coventya develops, manufactures and distributes a complete range of products for the plating industry:

• Corrosion protection : Zinc and Zinc Alloys, conversion coatings without Chrome VI and Top-coats.
• Decoration : Copper-Nickel-Chrome and their alloys
• Functional : Electroless Nickel^[5] and Hard Chrome
• Precious metals : Complete range of pure metals and their alloys: Gold, Silver, Palladium, Rhodium, Platinum, Ruthenium.
• Preparation : Cleaners, Etching solutions, Chemical and Electrolytic Polishing Products

Main users are job-platers, usually specialized sub-contractors for the automotive, construction, sanitary, fashion, luxury goods, electronic or oil industry.^[3]

Coventya is represented worldwide and operates 6 R&D Centers in Europe and in the USA.^[4]

History

Coventya’s history is linked to Société Continentale Parker in Clichy (92, France). In 1927, four aviation pioneers: Louis Paulhan, Enea Bossi, Pierre Prier and Robert Deté created Société Continentale Parker on the basis of a license for Parkerisation from Parker Rust-Proof in Detroit (MI, USA).^[6] In 1930, Continentale Parker started its Plating activities based on a license agreement of Udylite also from Detroit. The first licensed product introduced into the market was an organic brightener for Cadmium plating.

During the 1960s, Continentale Parker specialized in the Plating of precious metals due to the distribution of Sel-Rex processes of Nutley (NJ, USA).^[7]

In 1965, the German group Metallgesellschaft AG acquired most of the shares of Société Continentale Parker. Later on, it was integrated into Chemetall GmbH, created in 1984 in order to regroup all of its specialty chemicals activities.^[8] The internationalization began with the setting-up of electroplating departments in Chemetall Benelux and Spain, followed in 1988 by a new external development policy targeted towards Western Europe:

• Barattini, Italy (1989)^[9]
• Polar, Italy (1993)^[9]
• TECS, France (1994)^[10]
• Pelidag, France (1995)^[11]
• Weiland, Germany (1996)^[12]

The group eliminated the diversity of names by creating a new single identity in 1998: Chemetall Plating Technologies.

The risky speculations of Metallgesellschaft on oil futures in 1993 eventually caused it to separate from the plating activity and led to the sale of the business in 2000 which then became Coventya.^[13]

Coventya continued to pursue the globalization trend, favoring the external development of the company by acquisition:

• Folke-Stigen, Sweden (2001)^[14]
• McGean Rohco Mexico (2002)^[15]
• CGT/Auromet, Italy (2002)^[16]
• CGL Quimica, Brazil (2003)^[17]
• Sirius Technologies, USA (2004)^[18]
• Coventya (Suzhou) Chemicals, China, (2006)^[19]
• Taskem, USA (2007)^[18]
• Palojoki, Finland (2008)
• Plating Business of Chemetall-Rai, India (2011)
• Molecular Technologies, UK (2012)

Capital Structure

After the acquisition of Société Continentale Parker in 1965, Chemetall GmbH was created in 1982 in order to manage all specialty chemicals of the group.^[20] Chemetall was then integrated in Dynamit Nobel in 1992, the new subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft.^[20]

In 2000, the activity became independent after an MBO (Management Buy-Out) with the support of Quadriga Capital, Frankfurt for the equity financing.^[21] After the exit of Quadriga in 2006, the French bank Natixis, via its subsidiary iXEN, took over the role of majority shareholder.^[22] A special feature of the structure was a significant shareholding of employees in the capital of the company. In 2011, Barclays Private Equity (renamed Equistone Partners Europe) took over the majority of the shares and the role of iXEN in its holding CIGAL SAS, with a registered office located in Clichy, France.^[23]

Sites

• Gütersloh, Germany^[24]
• Villorba, Italy^[25]
• Agliana, Italy^[25]
• Wolverhampton, UK
• Cleveland, Ohio, USA^[26]
• Mexico City^[27]
• Caxias do Sul, Brazil^[28]
• Suzhou, China^[29]
• Pune, India

Turnover

The Turnover distribution in 2010 was as follows:

• Europe: 65%
• Americas : 28%
• Asia : 7%

Processes

Coventya proposes processes for GMF (General Metal Finishing) applications. Many common industry specifications make reference to processes like:

References

See also

• Electroless Nickel
• Dynamit Nobel