Merger talks called off for North Charleston company

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An international manufacturer of nonwoven fabrics, filtration products and papermaking technology headquartered in North Charleston said plans to merge part of its business with a German company have been called off.

Privately held AstenJohnson said in a news release that the company was ending the proposed merger of its paper machine clothing business with Heimbach, which is headquartered in Duren, Germany.

“We regret to announce that the proposed transaction to merge the Heimbach and AstenJohnson PMC businesses has been called off,” said AstenJohnson CEO Kevin Frank in the release. “While both companies have a high level of respect for each other and saw great potential to merge, the obstacles simply proved too great to overcome at this time.”

Heimbach said it plans to continue to look for strategic opportunities for growth while focusing on its core business of paper machine clothing and technical textiles.

Peter Michels, Heimbach’s managing director, indicated the timing wasn’t right for the merger with AstenJohnson. The proposed merger was announced in April and included only the paper machine clothing divisions of both companies.

“Although we are all disappointed that the PMC merger is not taking place now, we will be writing the next chapter in our more than 200-year history on our own,” Michels said in a statement.

AstenJohnson has about 2,100 employees worldwide. The company also provides filtration fabrics, filaments and nonwoven fabrics for filtration, automotive, cured-in-place piping and composites.