Dresner Partners, advised Accoya USA, LLC, a joint venture between Accsys Technologies PLC and Eastman Chemical Company, to successfully raise $80 million in debt capital to fund the construction of a facility in Kingsport, Tennessee to produce Accoya®, a high-performance, sustainable wood product. The financing will be provided by First Horizon Bank, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dresner Partners Advised Accoya USA, LLC in its $80 Million Raise of Debt Capital to Build an Accoya Wood Manufacturing Plant in Tennessee Dresner Partners, advised Accoya USA, LLC, a joint venture between Accsys Technologies PLC and Eastman Chemical Company, to successfully raise $80 million in debt capital to fund the construction of a facility in Kingsport, Tennessee to produce Accoya®, a high-performance, sustainable wood product. The financing will be provided by First Horizon Bank, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
Accoya offers the building construction industry a responsibly sourced and sustainably grown product with vastly improved performance characteristics. Accoya is suitable for all applications in which wood is exposed to moisture, such as decking, siding, windows, exterior doors, garden furniture and wet room. Accsys’ production process yields a non-toxic, low-maintenance product that has a significantly longer useful life than other wood products and Accoya is resistant to swelling, warping and damage from fungi and insects. Accsys has been selling Accoya in the U.S. since 2007. Accoya carries the prestigious Cradle-to-Cradle® “gold” certification overall, and delivers “platinum” certification in relation to health.
The joint venture will construct the plant with an initial capacity of approximately 18 million board feet (43,000 cubic meters) per annum. The plant will replicate existing Accoya technology at Accsys Technologies’ Arnhem, The Netherlands, production facility. It will be strategically located at Eastman’s Kingsport, Tennessee site, with Eastman providing the acetic anhydride required for the wood acetylation process from its adjacent facility. Additional information on the project can be found in Accsys Technologies’ announcement dated March 4, 2022 entitled “Accoya USA Final Investment Decision ” and available on their website.
North America represents a substantial market opportunity for Accoya and a growth acceleration opportunity for Accsys Technologies, as production volumes at Accsys’ existing site in Arnhem are insufficient to meet current demand. The plant will also reduce the transatlantic transportation costs associated with serving the U.S. market. More information on Accoya can be found at www.accoya.com
Steven M. Dresner, President of Dresner Partners, added, “We were very pleased to have received this challenging assignment from two great industrial companies, each with a remarkable focus on sustainability. The technology behind Accoya is groundbreaking and we look forward to seeing Accoya USA make incredible strides in the U.S. market. We also wish to thank our colleagues at First Horizon Bank, whose Kingsport, Tennessee office worked tirelessly with Dresner, Accsys and Eastman to develop a very creative financing structure that enabled the parties to complete a financing that successfully met several internal hurdles.”
Opus Corporate Finance introduced Dresner Partners to Accsys Technologies PLC, with whom they have worked on previous deals. The completion of this transaction is yet another very good example of Mergers Alliance member firms collaborating and benefiting from our broad international contact network.
