Dresner Partners Advised Accoya USA, LLC in its $80 Million Raise of Debt Capital to Build an Accoya Wood Manufacturing Plant in Kingsport, Tennessee

Dresner Partners, a leading FINRA-registered, middle-market investment bank and Mergers Alliance member firm, is pleased to announce that it has 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. Terms of the financing were not disclosed.

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.

Commenting on the transaction, Rob Harris, CEO of Accsys Technologies, said, “We are delighted to move forward with the construction phase of our North American joint venture with Eastman. Our Accoya USA joint venture will allow Accsys to meet the strong and growing demand in the U.S. market, which we believe is the largest addressable market for Accoya. We are excited to demonstrate the ability to replicate our facilities from Arnhem, showing how Accsys’ production footprint can scale globally as we move towards our goal of increasing production capacity to 200,000 m3 a year by 2025.”

Brad Lich, Chief Commercial Officer of Eastman, commented, “We're pleased to partner with Accsys and excited to achieve this very important milestone. Eastman is committed to becoming a leading sustainable materials company and Accoya's value proposition as a sustainable building material is compelling. The great collaboration between our teams brings a wealth of complementary experience and knowledge together, and positions Accoya USA, LLC very well to benefit from the synergy between our acetyls business and the Accoya production process. We look forward to progressing the Accoya USA story and delivering on the great potential in the North American market.”

Eddie Pratt, Director of Business Development at Accsys Technologies, stated, “Dresner Partners’ support, advice and creativity enabled the parties to achieve a financing structure that successfully addressed the numerous challenges of funding the construction of a new manufacturing facility within a joint venture. We were very pleased with Dresner’s commitment to seeing the project through, and their ability to secure a strong financing package for Accoya USA, LLC."

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.”

In addition to Steve Dresner, Dresner’s project team was led by Christopher W. Nolan Sr., Managing Director, and supported by Nicholas Coomer, Vice President.

About Dresner Partners
Dresner Partners is a FINRA-registered, middle-market investment bank headquartered in Chicago, with offices in New York City; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Dallas, Texas; and Palo Alto, Calif. For more than 30 years, Dresner Partners has provided financial advisory services to middle-market companies throughout the world including merger and acquisitions advisory, institutional private placements of debt and equity, financial restructuring, valuations, and strategic consulting services. Dresner Partners has extensive international and cross-border transaction experience and is a member of Mergers Alliance, one of the world’s leading global mergers and acquisitions partnerships focused on the middle market. An affiliated company, Dresner Corporate Services, is a strategic communications firm specializing in public relations, investor relations and corporate development. More information is available at www.dresnerpartners.com. You can also follow Dresner Partners on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DresnerPartners.

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For Media Inquiries of Dresner Partners
David Gutierrez, Head of PR, IR and Corporate Development, (312) 780-7204, dgutierrez@dresnerco.com

For Transaction Related Inquiries
Christopher W. Nolan Sr., Managing Director, (212) 444-8029, cnolan@dresnerco.com
Steven M. Dresner, President, (312) 780-7206, sdresner@dresnerco.com