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New owners for Vertellus

Speciality chemicals firm Vertellus has been acquired from Arsenal Capital Partners by another private equity firm, Pritzker Private Capital of Chicago. John Van Hulle, president and CEO of Vertellus, and other members of the management team are also investing and will continue to lead the business. Terms were not disclosed

End looms for UK registrations

ECHA has announced that all REACH registrations submitted by UK-based manufacturers, importers and only representatives that have not gone through all the steps required to complete the registration, both by the registrant and the agency by 31 December, will not be processed further. This date marks the end of the transition period for the UK’s departure from the EU.

DuPont board approves N&B split

DuPont’s board of directors has approved the separation of DuPont’s Nutrition & Biosciences (N&B) business through an exchange offer whereby stockholders can elect to tender DuPont shares for those of N&B on terms to be announced. This process is expected to be completed by 1 February.

Nippon Shokubai works with Summit

Nippon Shokubai and its Japanese compatriot Summit Cosmetics, a subsidiary of Sumitomo, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for the joint development and sales of next-generation personal care ingredient fields. Both are initially investigating new film forming agents and thickeners, including biopolymers.

BASF to sell Illinois site

BASF has agreed to sell its manufacturing site in Kankakee, Illinois and the associated businesses of vegetable-oil-based raw material sterols and natural vitamin E, anionic surfactants and esters to private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners. Terms are not being disclosed. Subject to regulatory approval, this should be completed in 1H 2021.

Arkema moves further to specialities

France’s Arkema has announced two transactions of very different scales. Both are described as “a new step in the group’s transformation, and is fully in line with Arkema’s ambition to become a pure speciality materials player by 2024”.

The company has agreed to divest its polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) business to materials player Trinseo for an enterprise value of €1,137 million, or 9.3x estimated EBITDA for 2020. This includes seven sites in Europe and North America, which employ about 860 people and are expected to turn over €510 million this year.

Croda has acquired Iberchem

Croda International has acquired Spanish-based flavours and fragrances (F&F) firm Iberchem from Eurazeo in a €820 million deal. This takes the company into F&F for the first time. It will be funded by existing debt facilities and a £600 equity placing, representing about 8% of Croda’s issued share capital.

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