The board of Swedish-based CDMO Recipharm has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept a revised offer for the firm from Roar BidCo, a vehicle set up by investment organisation EQT IX and backed by chairman Lars Backsell and CEO Thomas Eldered. The offer period ends on 12 February. Roar BidCo has said that it does not plan any changes to the management team or for employees.
The world’s two largest speciality chemical distributors, Brenntag and Univar Solutions, have both concluded further acquisitions, disposals and deals in 2021. This follows on from numerous such advances by their rivals, Azelis and IMCD, in 2020.
Two Western players, Italy’s Italmatch Chemicals and Colonial Chemicals of the US, have recently signed investment plans that will see them manufacturing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the wider Gulf region. Terms were not disclosed in either case.
Together with Biolab Arabia, Genoa-based Italmatch has created a 60-40 joint venture called Italmatch Biolab Industrial. This will make performance additives for applications in water and process treatment, and the oil and gas sector, with a focus on thermal and membrane based desalination, at Al-Jubail.
Enzymes giant Novozymes has revealed that it is diversifying into biocontrol in agriculture. The company said that it sees this emerging sector as having huge growth potential, as pests continue to cause billions of dollars in damage to crops every year while pressure is continuing to restrict the use of chemical pesticides.
Libra Speciality Chemicals has broken ground on a multi-million-pound capital investment programme at its site in Irlam, UK. This will see new technology installed to produce novel low-salt betaines, while expanding the existing plant’s capacity from 32,000 to 50,000 tonnes/year.
The German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and the German Chemical Employers' Association (BAVC) have joined forces to “vehemently reject” calls for a three-week shutdown for the chemical-pharmaceutical industry. This has been suggested as part of a nationwide ‘hard lockdown’ to fight the rapid growth in COVID-19 infection.
French-based CDMO Novasep has announced two sales. Henagen, its Belgium-based viral vectors operation, has been sold to Thermo Fisher Scientific for about €725 million, while, in a much smaller deal, it also intends to sell its chromatography equipment division to Sartorius Stedim Biotech.
