Townsend Ventures’ affiliate MBP Investors has acquired The Dow Chemical Company’s (DOW) all ownership interest in Dow Kokam LLC. With this acquisition, MBP now holds the majority ownership of Dow Kokam, which includes the Midland Battery Park in Michigan and the Lee’s Summit facility in Missouri.
TK Advanced Battery LLC (an affiliate of Townsend), KA Founders LLC and Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault own the remaining ownership in Dow Kokam.
Dow’s move to divest its Dow Kokam interest is in sync with its focus on applying market participation strategy and investment prioritization decisions. Dow is targeting selected end-use markets to accelerate value creation, deliver long-term, sustainable growth and boost shareholders value. Moreover, Dow’s current focus is on improving the materials portion of the battery value chain rather than focusing on batteries themselves.
MBP’s decision to buy Dow’s interest in Dow Kokam is in line with its owner Townsend’s global strategy to continue investing in and providing leadership and support to emerging technologies in the energy storage market. Overall, the transaction is a strategic fit for both Dow and Townsend.
Dow Kokam designs and produces large-format nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion cells and systems that offer advanced battery solutions with energy, power, lifetime, safety and cost advantages. It also provides high-performance advanced energy storage solutions to a wide spectrum of customers in the fleet transportation, stationary storage, marine, defense and industrial markets.
The Midland Battery Park facility of Dow Kokam is one of the highest capacity and large-format lithium ion battery manufacturing plants globally.
Maryland-based Townsend is a private investment firm. In the last 35 years, Townsend and its affiliates have successfully invested in a wide range of real estate and operating companies. Other than in Dow Kokam, Townsend has invested in other associated businesses, including Energy Power Systems and AllCell Technologies.
Dow currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Other companies in the chemical industry worth considering include Methanex Corp. (MEOH), Asahi Kasei Corp. (AHKSY) and Johnson Matthey plc (JMPLY). All of them carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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