Cleveland Firm to Buy Costa Mesa’s Cimco

M.A. Hanna Co. of Cleveland said Wednesday that it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Cimco Inc., a Costa Mesa maker of industrial and medical plastics, for about $33 million.

Cimco and M.A. Hanna had struck a tentative agreement in November. Hanna, an international specialty chemicals company, will pay Cimco shareholders $10.50 a share, plus options and other securities.

Hanna also has agreed to sell Cimco’s fast-growing plastics molding business, Compounding Technology Inc., back to the Costa Mesa company’s founder, Russell T. Gilbert, for an undisclosed price. Gilbert will retain the Cimco name and operate the company privately. Most of the 428 employees at Cimco’s Costa Mesa plant are expected to retain their jobs.