Japan’s Nippon Shokubai has agreed to buy Sirrus, a US-based company that has developed cost-advantaged technology to produce reactive monomers at high purities. The transaction is due to complete this month, subject to the usual closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sirrus’s leading target monomer is diethyl methyl malonate (DEMM) that, together with its derivatives (MM-D), can be used in various applications and markets where customers value faster cure times and lower solvent use, and who are also facing legal restrictions on existing formulation substances.

The Loveland, Ohio-based company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shokubai, gaining access to the additional resources required to accelerate the development and commercialization of DEMM and MM-D. The start-up of the first commercial plant is targeted for 2019. Moving forward, both companies will work on the early establishment of supply chains and prepare for market entry.

Describing the acquisition as a strong strategic fit, Masanori Ikeda, president of Nippon Shokubai, said it is rare to find a platform monomer company like Sirrus that provides best-in-class reactive monomers and materials.

Founded in 2009 as Bioformix, Sirrus has more than 25 patents worldwide on process technologies, methods of application, initiation, formulation and stabilization as well as matter composition for certain homopolymers, copolymers and hybrid polymers.