As well as Hong Kong, CosBond has offices and warehouses in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. It represents more than 30 “renowned” global principal suppliers, predominantly in the personal care sector, followed by the flavour & fragrance, food & nutrition and fine chemicals industries.

Since it was established in 2013, Azelis China has enjoyed steady growth, said Laurent Nataf, CEO & president of Azelis Asia Pacific, adding that the company runs five application laboratories in Shanghai, including one for personal care.

“China has a large and fast-growing personal care market, so now is the right moment to enhance our service offering,” said Jackson Chu, managing director, Azelis China. “The combination of CosBond’s extended customer base, our joint good market knowledge and strong technical and formulation capabilities of Azelis’ personal care team will result in a more comprehensive specialty offering in China.”

In addition, Chu said the company is confident that the acquisition will bring ample cross-selling opportunities as well as prospects to expand the business with its existing long-standing and trusted partners.

The acquisition is the third so far this year for Azelis. In February, the specialty chemicals distributor agreed to buy Indian pharmaceuticals supplier S. Zhaveri Pharmakem, while the month before, Azelis Americas closed its purchase of Mexican specialty distributor Megafarma.

Separately, Azelis has announced that effective from Apr. 1, it will distribute Merck Performance Materials’ complete range in Vietnam for personal care, coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers (CASE), food & health and industrial chemicals.

The deal is an extension of an existing agreement between the companies that originated in 1968 and has been expanded over the years across Europe.