The fluorochemical maker Solstice Advanced Materials has agreed to purchase the chemical formulator and distributor Element Solutions in a cash-and-stock deal worth $14.5 billion.
Element had sales in 2025 of $2.5 billion and reported $191 million in profits. The combined company will have sales of $6.8 billion with a strong emphasis on chemicals used by the electronics manufacturing industry.
Solstice became a stand-alone company in 2025 when it spun off of the industrial conglomerate Honeywell. Its largest segment includes refrigerants, blowing agents, and propellants, including the climate-friendly brand of hydrofluoroolefins from which the company takes its name as well as conventional options such as hydrofluorocarbons. The firm also applies its fluorination expertise to make heavy metal fluoride gases such as uranium hexafluoride that are used to produce isotope-enriched nuclear fuel.
The acquisition of Element follows through on commitments from Solstice’s management to expand its offerings in electronic materials. The company’s refrigerant business has also been doing brisk business in data center cooling for artificial intelligence applications. “Element adds focused electronics, formulation, and technical service capabilities and a robust technology portfolio that complement Solstice’s strengths in chemistry, application development, refrigerant application solutions, and high-performance materials,” Solstice says in a press release.
In addition to Element’s electronic materials business, which accounts for about 70% of the firm’s sales and profits, the company sells coatings and imaging chemicals for industrial products and consumer goods as well as hydraulic fluids used in fracking methods to extract oil and natural gas. The company went public in 2014 as Platform Specialty Products after a long history in metal finishing, oil and gas, and imaging.
The two firms are similar in size. Solstice employs 4,100 people, including 300 in research and development, which it spent $97 million on last year. Element meanwhile has 5,200 employees and says about 2,080 are scientific staff, including those in R&D and technical sales and service. Its 2025 R&D spending added up to about $68 million.
The transaction will bring Element’s 47 manufacturing sites and 8 stand-alone research centers into Solstice, which currently has 20 manufacturing sites and 4 R&D centers, including its research headquarters in Buffalo, New York.
The boards of both firms have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2027. After the transaction, the company will keep the Solstice name and be led by Solstice CEO David Sewell. Element Solutions CEO Ben Gliklich and two others from that company will join Solstice’s board. “We expect Element and Solstice to be extremely well positioned to deliver on our customers’ growing requirements for signal integrity, thermal management, reliability, and performance,” Sewell says.
