Swiss dyes and specialty chemicals company Archroma has agreed to buy BASF’s stilbene-based optical brightening agents (OBA) business for paper and powder detergent applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The agreement was signed between Archroma India and BASF India and includes a manufacturing plant in Ankleshwar, India, where around 100 people are currently employed. Completion is anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2019.

“This acquisition will not only allow Archroma to strengthen our OBA supply to customers in the packaging & paper industry, in particular in India and Asia, it will also help us develop our portfolio offering to customers in the detergents market with high-performance powder OBA,” said Marcos Furrer, Archroma’s president of packaging & paper specialties.

BASF said the divestment was in line with its strategy of “actively managing” its portfolio.

Archroma bought another BASF business in 2015, that time it was BASF’s textile chemicals assets, which included the legal entity BASF Pakistan based in Karachi.

The Reinach-based company has been owned by private equity group SK Capital Partners since 2013.