Apollo Global Management LLC has put Alcan International Network (AIN) up for sale following its acquisition of Alcan’s engineered products business.
"It’s going to be sold again," a source familiar with the matter said.
The private equity firm is believed to have received about five expressions of interest for AIN. The potential suitors are from the financial community rather than from the metals sector.
AIN is part of the engineered products division, in which Apollo acquired a majority stake in January and which it has since renamed Constellium.
A sale would be logical as the business does not fit into Constellium’s strategy, market sources said. Under the new ownership, AIN does not have an exclusive supply or sales agreement with Constellium, for example.
"That’s something that I would have thought would happen eventually," a source familiar with the business said. He suggested that the three owners may retain a small stake in the business rather than offloading it completely.
Others also were not surprised. "It’s typical for a company to come in and trim back," an aluminum trader said.
Constellium declined to comment.
Apollo owns a 51-percent stake in the business, with former owner Rio Tinto holding 39 percent and France’s Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement the other 10 percent.
AIN’s first office was set up as Pechiney World Trade in New York in 1921. Its name changed to AIN following Alcan’s acquisition of Pechiney in 2004.
It has a network of 27 agencies supplying raw materials to the aluminum, steel and foundry industries, semi-fabricated products for construction, transportation, general engineering, packaging and industrial markets mainly in North America and Asia, as well as minerals and specialty chemicals, generating $2 billion in sales in 2009, according to its Web site.
Boris Santosi left as managing director of AIN’s business in Africa, Middle East and India recently to set up a European sales office in Switzerland for Aluminium Bahrain BSC
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