US plastics compounder and distributor A. Schulman (Akron, Ohio; www.aschulman.com) has completed its acquisition of composites specialist Citadel Plastics (West Chicago, Illinois / USA; www.citadelplastics.com) for USD 800m. The company said that it expects the deal, announced in March 2015 (see Plasteurope.com of 17.03.2015), to be accretive in the first 12 months of ownership and to bring around USD 25m in synergies within the next 18 months.

Bernard Rzepka, president and CEO of A. Schulman, said: “We are thrilled to add Citadel to our portfolio of highly specialised businesses, and welcome the talented group of associates to the A. Schulman team. With significant revenue in the United States, Citadel greatly enhances our regional scale and efficiencies, as well as balances our current global geographic footprint. Citadel also provides a strong entry point to our Expanded Vision initiative by adding a second strategic growth platform to our organisation with its industry-leading, value-added speciality engineered composites business.”

Since 2010, A. Schulman has been following an acquisitive growth strategy to aggressively expand in key geographic regions and develop its global speciality product portfolio and capabilities. The Citadel acquisition builds on this strategy, it added.