...High-Yield Specialty Chemical Peer Review: The report compares and contrasts nine North American high-yield specialty chemicals companies on the following parameters: M&A risk, leverage, margins, liquidity, covenants and diversification. Companies reviewed include A. Schulman Inc. (A. Schulman), Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (Axalta), Hexion Inc. (Hexion), Koppers Holdings Inc. (Koppers), Kraton Performance Polymers (Kraton), LSB Industries, Inc. (LSB), Momentive Performance Materials Inc. (Momentive), OMNOVA Solutions, Inc. (OMNOVA) and Platform Specialty Products Corp. (Platform). Chemicals Outlook Stable: The chemicals demand trend remains positive in North America, despite declines in the price of crude oil, increased petrochemical capacity in emerging markets and a slowdown in Chinese and emerging market growth weakening global chemicals prices in the past year. However, producers should benefit from solid domestic growth in manufacturing and continued recovery in U.S. construction and...
