Azelis has further strengthened its Asian personal care business by acquiring Bronson and Jacobs Hong Kong and its fully owned subsidiary in Shanghai from Ixom. The deal, for which terms were not disclosed, is expected to close by the end of the year.

Bronson and Jacobs China specialises in the distribution of personal care ingredients, mainly for skin care, for various global principals. It has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the latter also including a personal care laboratory.

Lonza has opened the first of two manufacturing suites at its main site in Visp, Switzerland, for the manufacture of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linkers or payloads. This came shortly after an unrelated deal to manufacture antibodies to treat COVID-19 for AstraZeneca and the arrival of a new CEO with a Big Pharma background.

IMCD has agreed to acquire the pharmaceutical business of Peak International Products, a Netherlands-based distributor of APIs in the Benelux, Vietnam, Germany and Israel. The business, which had sales of about €5.8 million in 2019, will be integrated into IMCD’s Pharmaceuticals business group.

Shortly before this, IMCD, the world’s fourth largest chemical distributor, completed the much larger acquisition of a 70% majority stake in Signet Excipients, a major Indian distributor of excipients, as part of its platform for further growth in India and the Asia-Pacific.

Merck KGaA, has announced a €20 million expansion of its OLED manufacturing capacity at sites in Pyeongtaek, Korea, and Shanghai, China. This comes in response to growing demand, the company said.

The investment will be spent on building a new modular production system to facilitate the installation of additional sublimation units. These units are central to material purity, which is one of the most important factors in the performance and lifetime of OLED devices.

Netherlands-based Barentz International, which is mainly a distributor of life science ingredients, has agreed to acquire Maroon Group of the US in a deal that will create a global force in the life science and broader specialty chemical industries. It has also acquired Singapore-based personal care product distributor Nardev. Financial terms were not disclosed in either transaction.

Finnish paper giant UPM has officially begun construction of its Biochemicals’s division’s €550 million facility at Leuna, Germany. The plant is expected to start production by the end of 2022. At the World BioEconomy Forum in September, the investment won the award for Bio Act of the Year.

“The biorefinery in Leuna will be the nucleus for an entirely new and high-value growth business and opens totally new markets for UPM with large growth potential for the future,” said Jyrki Ovaska, EVP of Technology at UPM.

PQ Group Holdings has agreed to sell its Performance Materials business, known as Potters Industries and a major producer of engineered glass materials, for $650 million to mid-market private equity firm Jordan Company. The deal should close by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.