In an emailed press release, Universal Matter UK Limited (UM UK) (Redcar, Teesside, United Kingdom), a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal Matter, Inc. (UMI), has acquired all shares of Applied Graphene Materials UK (AGM UK) (Redcar and Cleveland, United Kingdom) and Applied Graphene Materials LLC (AGM US). These two main operating subsidiaries of Applied Graphene Materials PLC were acquired for a total consideration of $1.3 million.
Formed in 2019, UMI is a privately held Canadian advanced materials company that upcycles a range of carbon-based materials, including waste streams, to manufacture and supply high quality, sustainable turbostratic graphene. UMI’s proprietary Flash Joule Heating (FJH) process can transform a variety of carbon-containing feedstocks into high-value graphene materials. The combination of feedstock flexibility and the FJH process can produce tuneable graphene products with a range of physical properties—a quality that is instrumental in providing performance benefits across diverse end-use applications.
“The acquisition of AGM fits exceptionally well with UMI’s growth strategy by significantly enhancing our dispersion and application capabilities for advanced paints and coatings,” notes John van Leeuwen, CEO of UMI. “Moreover, it will provide UMI with an important European footprint for strengthening our growth potential.”
AGM UK’s market-leading product technologies, which include graphene dispersion technologies and application and formulation know-how, have been designed to deliver next-generation performance requirements for protective industrial coatings and other applications. In addition, its dispersion solutions are easy and safe to use in industrial settings, and also have appropriate regulatory approvals for volume deployment.
The combined capabilities enabled by this acquisition will accelerate the growth of novel graphene-based solutions by utilizing UMI’s proprietary graphene capabilities and AGM UK’s dispersion platform technologies. In addition, it will help create a compelling value proposition for many industries by further capitalizing on UMI’s FJH process for upcycling carbon waste into high-performance, sustainable graphene solutions.