Explosive acquisition

Industri Kapital and Ensign-Bickford Industries have signed an agreement to sell their co-owned explosives outfit

to a consortium of institutional investors led by Macquarie Bank for $1.7 billion.

The consortium aims to focus on Dyno Nobel’s North American and Australian assets and, as a result, is to sell most of Dyno Nobel's European, Middle Eastern, African, Asian and Latin American businesses to the Australian chemical and explosives company Orica.

At present, Dyno Nobel has 5,800 employees in 36 countries, research and technology facilities on four continents and sales of $1.4 billion per year.

Since IK acquired the company in August 2000, it has made two important acquisitions. In 2003, Dyno Nobel merged with the Ensign-Bickford Company, which gave the company a market leading position in initiation systems. And in 2004, the company acquired El Paso’s ammonium nitrate facilities.

During IK’s ownership, Dyno Nobel sales and EBITDA increased by approximately 100% and 170% respectively.

Macquarie’s acquisition of Dyno Nobel is subject to regulatory approvals and is currently expected to be completed in late November 2005.