By Abigail Summerville
Oct 26 (Reuters) - GOJO Industries, the maker of Purell hand sanitizer, said on Thursday it would refinance its debt after sources told Reuters that negotiations about the sale of the company to paper and building products manufacturer Georgia-Pacific fell through.
GOJO explored a sale earlier this year at a more than $2 billion valuation, but bidders could not meet the price expectations of the Lippman-Kanfer family that controls it, Reuters reported in June.
GOJO said that the refinancing was provided by investment firm Silver Point Capital. It did not disclose terms, but people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that Silver Point provided $500 million of financing.
The suitor that made the most progress in the sale process for GOJO was Georgia-Pacific, a company owned by Koch Industries, the sources said. The terms of Georgia-Pacific's unsuccessful offer could not be learned.
A GOJO spokesperson said that the company explored a range of options, but declined to outline them.
”We have selected and are pleased with our path moving forward,” the spokesperson said.
Silver Point, Georgia-Pacific and Koch Industries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
GOJO was founded in 1946, when rubber factory worker Goldie Lippman and her husband, Jerry, partnered with chemistry professor Clarence Cook to invent what became the world's first one-step, rinse-off hand cleaner. The company expanded into skincare and invented Purell, an alcohol-based hand cleaner which dries on its own, in 1988. The company launched Purell in the consumer market in 1997.
Global revenue in the hand sanitizing industry skyrocketed from about $1 billion in 2019 to $6.3 billion in 2020, according to Statista Market Insights, as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic fueled demand. But sales dropped to $2.95 billion in 2022 as the pandemic subsided. Statista forecasts the market to grow by 3.96% on a compounded annual basis over the next four years. (Reporting by Abigail Summerville in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)