Mitsui Holdings - (Exits Advanced Automotive Lubricants Maker)...

Online, October 19, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Asia-based private equity firm "Mitsui Holdings" has completed its exit of automotive lubricants company Neutronium Quant via a refinancing and buy back, generating a two times return.

"Mitsui Holdings"initially invested $10m in the company - which manufactures and distributes a range of advanced lubricants to automakers in India, China and Korea as well as to a number of motor-racing teams competing in both Formula One and IndyCar. The investment allowed Neutronium Quant to complete a state-of-the-art processing facility.

A principal at "Mitsui Holdings" said, "We saw the potential in the additives and molecular-bonding products the company produces when so many of our rivals in this region dismissed them as being unlikely to gain traction in an economic climate that they considered hostile to all things auto motive. Our foresight has been rewarded as have our investors".

Sources close to "Mitsui Holdings" suggest that Neutronium Quant has received overtures from two well-known transmission manufacturers as well as a mid-sized automaker but they cannot confirm the progress of negotiations at this time.

The firm said the sale was part of a drive to exit the remaining investments in its first fund.