Inside the Cambium acquisition of SHD Composites – FMG’s Berthold Alfes panel interview with JEC

Earlier this year, FMG acted as exclusive sell-side advisor on the sale of SHD Composites to Cambium. At JEC World 2026, FMG’s Director Berthold Alfes joined Nigel Blatherwick, Group Commercial Director at SHD Composites, and Brett Schneider, President of SHD and Cambium Composites, for a panel interview chaired by Jeff Sloan, Global Content Advisor and Editor at JEC Group. The conversation offered a candid look at how the deal came together and what it signals for M&A activity in the advanced composites and advanced materials sector.

SHD is a well-established prepreg manufacturer, founded in 2010, with a strong technical reputation across aerospace, motorsport, automotive and industrial markets. The business has grown consistently since its founding, built on close customer relationships and a reliable, high-quality product offering across low and high temperature applications.Cambium is a different proposition as it is an AI-driven materials discovery company, VC-backed and focused on developing advanced materials for defence and industrial customers, operating across multiple verticals and scaling quickly.

Deals such as this one do not always get talked about openly, but it is precisely the kind of deal that is gaining real traction in the advanced materials sector. The panel is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the people involved about how it actually happened.

Some of the key insight include:

• Composite M&A and strategic acquisitions are accelerating. For high-growth, VC-backed materials companies, organic development is often too slow. Building out composites capability means months of capital expenditure on reactors and infrastructure. Acquiring an established business like SHD is faster, more efficient and significantly lowers the risk of expansion. This is a pattern playing out across the advanced materials sector and it is only going to increase accoring to the panel.

• The composites and advanced materials M&A market is active across the full lifecycle. There is healthy deal flow from founder-owned businesses reaching an inflection point, innovative startups solving real industry challenges, and strategic buyers attracted by the market access that established composites businesses offer. This dynamic is also creating attractive exit routes for private equity and thus there is an observed overall increase in VC-backed ventures.

• For a family-owned business, commercial value is only part of the picture. Preserving the culture, customer commitments and long-term direction of the business were equally important criteria for SHD in identifying the right partner. The panel is open about how those considerations shaped the process from the outset, and how the strong working relationship between FMG and SHD helped throughout the deal.

The full interview is available on JEC Composites TV and is an interesting piece for anyone active in advanced materials!