Univar Solutions has acquired Brazil’s Sweetmix Distribuidora de Materias Primas Industrais for an undisclosed sum. Based in Sao Paulo, Sweetmix offers a range of food mixtures, sweeteners and other ingredients, as well as specialty additives for coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers (CASE), rubbers and plastics.
IMCD China, part of Netherlands-headquartered globally active specialty chemicals distributor IMCD, has agreed to acquire all of Chinese personal care company Syntec to bolster its position in the personal care and cosmetics sector. Closing of the transaction, for which financial terms were not revealed, is planned to take place within the next five weeks.
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess Greiner’s proposed acquisition of Recticel over concerns that the combined entity would reduce competition in the technical foams market. The polyester- or polyether-based flexible foams are used in a wide variety of applications in diverse industries, including the automotive, construction, household and clothing industries.
French pharma Sanofi is investing $60 million in Gyroscope Therapeutics, a UK-based clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on eye diseases. Sanofi will initially invest $40 million, with the remaining funds contingent on a future qualifying investment round and the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.
Usalco, a portfolio company of investment firm H.I.G. Capital, has completed a merger with G2O Technologies, owned by private equity group Arsenal Capital Partners. The merger creates one of North America’s leading water treatment chemical companies with 27 sites across the Americas.
Sweden’s Biotage, a provider of systems and products for drug discovery and development, analytical testing and water and environmental testing, has acquired the UK’s ATDBio for about £45 million on a debt-free and cash-free basis.
US chemical producer Milliken has completed the acquisition of compatriot Encapsys from the Cypress Performance Group (CPG), a holding company formed by Sherman Capital Holdings in the merger of Encapsys with IPS Corporation.
US-based Charles River Laboratories International on Oct. 12 completed the divestment of its gene therapy CDMO site in Sweden and its research models and services operations in Japan. The site in Matfors, Sweden, was sold to an unnamed private investor group for about $52 million cash, with potential contingent payments of up to an additional $25 million, subject to certain adjustments.
Virtual specialty materials manufacturer Aceto has acquired A&C Bio Buffer, a GMP manufacturer of custom buffer and chemical blend products used to produce biopharmaceuticals. Financial terms were not disclosed.
US drugs giant Merck & Co. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire publicly traded US biotech Acceleron Pharma for $180 per share, yielding a total equity value of roughly $11.5 billion. Not only because of the size of the transaction, the takeover plans are being closely watched. An activist investor or anti-trust authority could potentially upset the deal, reports suggest.
Specialty polymers and bio-based products manufacturer Kraton has agreed to be acquired by Korean petrochemicals and engineering group DL Chemical, part of DL Holdings, formerly known as Daelim Industrial. The all-cash transaction foresees DL Chemical paying $2.5 billion to take full control of the company based at Houston, Texas, in the US.
Sibur and TAIF have finalized the terms of their petrochemical merger. The move follows an announcement on Apr. 23 that the firms had initiated steps to create a combined company that will be Russia’s largest petrochemical producer and one of the top five global polyolefin and rubber producers.
US investment group Apollo Global Management has bid for titanium dioxide producer Tronox, according to a report by Reuters. The news comes just days after Apollo entered into exclusive negotiations to buy French PVC maker Kem One.
Sanofi has completed the $3.2 billion acquisition of US biotech Translate Bio after the tender offer for all shares expired as scheduled at midnight US Eastern Daylight Time on Sept. 4. The minimum tender condition and all of the other conditions to the offer were satisfied, the French drugmaker said.
German chemicals distributor Oqema has acquired Ireland’s Casoria for an undisclosed sum, expanding both its network in the country and its product portfolio. Based in Cavan, Casoria distributes a range of chemicals and metals to the Irish market.
US CDMO Recro Pharma has paid roughly $50 million in a cash-and-stock deal to buy Irisys, a compatriot CDMO with operations on both the East and West Coasts. Recro said the deal expands its offering from pre-Investigational New Drug (IND) development to commercial manufacturing and packaging for a wide range of dosage forms.
Indorama Ventures (IVL), a world leader in the PET market, is continuing its acquisition spree, in its latest move buying Brazil’s Oxiteno Indústria e Comércio, a subsidiary of Ultrapar Participações. In picking up the new asset, IVL said it will gain a unique portfolio in high-value surfactants and significantly expand its existing Integrated Oxides and Derivatives (IOD) business.
In its fifth announced acquisition so far this year, Brenntag has taken over North America's Matrix Chemical for an undisclosed sum. Signing and closing of the acquisition occurred simultaneously.
US CDMO Curia, formerly AMRI, has agreed to acquire LakePharma, a privately held biologics drug discovery, clinical research, development and manufacturing organization. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
US biopharma Amgen has agreed to buy privately held clinical-stage biotech Teneobio in a deal worth up to $2.5 billion. The acquisition will expand Amgen’s antibody development capabilities for drugs to treat cancer and other diseases in the firm’s core therapeutic areas.
South Africa’s Sasol has agreed to sell its sodium cyanide business to a local subsidiary of Draslovka Holding, a privately owned Czech-based company, for 1.46 billion Rand, or approximately $101 million. The deal, part of Sasol’s ongoing asset divestment program, is expected to close in the first half of 2022, subject to antitrust clearance and other license and permit regulatory approvals.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has acquired Prothena’s clinical-stage stage antibody PRX004 and broader ATTR amyloidosis program, gaining full global rights to the intellectual property and related rights of the ATTR amyloidosis business and pipeline.
To gain a berth in the sustainable industrial coatings market, Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), a 45% affiliate of Bangkok-based, state-owned energy major PTT, is paying Advent International €4 billion for the private equity giant’s Germany-based Allnex resins portfolio company. The selling price is more than 12 times last year’s EBITDA.
Only a day after announcing it was changing its name to Curia, the US CDMO known up to now as AMRI announced a “definitive agreement” to acquire Integrity Bio, a privately held biologics formulation and fill & finish organization headquartered in Camarillo, California.
EU competition authorities have approved AstraZeneca’s $39 billion takeover of US biopharma Alexion. Europe’s green light for the deal sealed in December 2020 follows the approval of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April 2021.
US semiconductor equipment maker MKS Instruments is buying German specialty chemicals and equipment company Atotech for an enterprise value of $6.5 billion in a combined cash-and-stock deal. The acquisition is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2021. MKS will fund the cash portion of the transaction with funds to hand and debt financing.
Companies outside the drugs and private equity sectors are increasingly striking deals to buy pharmaceutical companies. In one of the latest, cigarette manufacturer Phillip Morris has bought oral drug delivery specialist Fertin Pharma. Seller is private equity investor EQT Private Equity.
Celanese has emerged as the buyer of the TPV elastomers business Exxon Mobil put on the sale block earlier this year. The US chemicals and engineering plastics group said on Jun. 30 it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the portfolio that includes the iconic Santoprene brand along with intellectual property, production and commercial assets.
Catalent has announced plans to acquire RheinCell Therapeutics, a German developer and manufacturer of GMP-grade human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a type of cell that can be differentiated into various cell types to address a wide range of therapeutic indications.
Global food giant Kerry Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Niacet Corp. from an affiliate of funds advised by private equity firm SK Capital Partners and other shareholders, for €853 million.
Distrupol, a UK-based distributor of thermoplastics and elastomers, has acquired Lautrup Chemicals, a Danish polymers distributor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
UK-based pharmatech Exscientia has entered into a binding agreement to buy Vienna-based Allcyte, a specialist in precision medicine using artificial intelligence (AI). Under the terms, Exscientia will pay €50 million, comprised of cash and Exscientia’s ordinary shares. The transaction is currently under review by Austrian regulators.
Just weeks after spending $60 million buying UK electro-chemical producer H.K. Wentworth, Element Solutions has offered to acquire Coventya, a French international manufacturer of specialty chemicals used in surface treatment, from private equity owner Silverfleet Capital.
Bayer has announced plans to acquire Noria Therapeutics and PSMA Therapeutics, thereby obtaining exclusive rights to a differentiated alpha radionuclide investigational compound based on actinium-225 and a small molecule directed towards prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA).
In the drive to reach growth objectives, or to maintain and enhance “critical mass”, mergers & acquisitions (M&A) has been a theme for the chemical distribution industry for years. The industry leaders (by size and geographic reach) were all built through a series of such transactions. The practice is further trickling down to the smaller and mid-sized company layer of the sector, and more distributors espouse external growth options.
