Eternis Fine Chemicals buy of UK’s Tennants Fine Chemicals

Eternis Fine Chemicals Ltd, (Eternis) a leading Indian producer and exporter of aroma chemicals, announced that it has completed an acquisition of 100% shareholding of Tennants Fine Chemicals Ltd (Tennants Fine Chemicals), headquartered at Leek, Staffordshire in the United Kingdom and its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Singapore and China, from Tennants Consolidated Limited.

As a result of this transaction, Eternis and Tennants Fine Chemicals expand and complement the range of aroma chemicals offered to customers, whilst leveraging the multi-location manufacturing and distribution platforms to better service our customers regionally and de-risk our supply chain.

“As we step into 2021, I speak on behalf of the team at Eternis in expressing my excitement with this significant step of successfully completing our first overseas acquisition in our growth journey”, says Mr Rajen Mariwala, Managing Director of Eternis.

An Interview With John-George Willis Corporate Consultant at Tughans Solicitors

Please share your involvement in the deal.

Tughans acted as sole legal adviser to Tennants Consolidated Limited on the disposal of Tennants Fine Chemicals Limited working with a team at Tennants Consolidated Limited led by Michael Hughes.

What challenges did you come across when working on this deal and how did you overcome them?

The deal kicked off a couple of months into the global pandemic and we found ourselves leading the legal aspects of the sale of a large chemicals business headquartered in Leek, Staffordshire with subsidiary businesses in Singapore and China to an Indian buyer. The buyer Eternis of India was legally represented by a team at DSK India led by Aparajit Bhattacharya, assisted by Rajah & Tann, Singapore on Singapore law and Simmons & Simmons, London on English law. A Lincoln International team in London led by Phil McCreanor provided corporate finance advice to Eternis. Just about everyone on the deal in all the jurisdictions involved was working both remotely and within each other’s time zones. Not one physical meeting took place. Despite this, the transaction proceeded at pace and was well coordinated on both sides. Everyone showed a real appetite to get it over the line despite all the challenges brought on by the pandemic.

When working on acquisitions that are globally dispersed, how do you ensure that distance has no impact on the work that needs to be completed? Are there any added stages for clients here that you assist with?

In this case, the parties involved were based in Mumbai, Delhi, China, Singapore, London and Belfast. Distance was not a problem – we were all working remotely and speaking with each other by video conferencing when required. Even different time zones did not present a challenge – everyone was willing to work at very unsocial hours with an attitude that whatever needed to be done to get the deal over the line, we will do it.