Germany’s Brenntag has announced a flurry of deals as the year-end approaches. The first announcement relates to a joint venture with India’s Raj Petro Specialties. Headquartered in Mumbai and Chennai, Raj distributes its own-blended brands of petroleum-related products to a variety of industries in India and other countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.

Brenntag will take a majority 65% stake with a first tranche to be closed on Apr. 1, 2018. The second and remaining 35% will be acquired via a second tranche after a period of five years, during which the business will operate as a joint venture, with a possible extension of another one or two years.

Steven Holland, Brenntag’s CEO, said Raj’s portfolio, market presence, infrastructure capability and strategic locations make it a compelling investment target to expand the group’s footprint. “For Brenntag, the acquisition of Raj is a further step into the Indian chemical distribution market, which is the seventh largest globally for chemicals and third largest for lubricants,” he commented.

Raj’s product range services various product groups, such as transformer oils, white oils and paraffins, petroleum jelly, process oils, waxes and solvents as well as industrial and automotive lubes. The business is expected to generate total sales of around €180 million in the financial year ending Mar. 31, 2018.

The German distributor has also concluded a second deal, to acquire Conquimica, a distributor headquartered in Medellin, Colombia. The Latin American company mostly provides industrial and specialty chemicals to the coatings, food and cleaning industries and operates four warehouses in Medellin, Cali, Bogota and Bucuramanga.

“Conquimica is an attractive investment to extend our geographic coverage and distribution network in Colombia. The company’s broad product portfolio and well-developed infrastructure complements our offerings to customers in important focus industries,” said Germán Torres, CEO of Brenntag Latin America.