Business Concentrates INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
▸ Settlement reached over chemical spill American Water and Eastman Chemical have agreed to pay a total of $151 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by businesses and residents over Freedom Chemical’s 2014 spill of 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM), which contaminated municipal water in Charleston, W.Va. The lawsuit charged that American Water didn’t respond to the spill properly and that Eastman didn’t warn Freedom about the dangers of MCHM, a compound used to wash coal. Papers filed with the Federal Court in Charleston indicate that the water utility will contribute $126 million to the settlement. Eastman is contributing the remaining $25 million, according to press reports.—MARC REISCH
INVESTMENT
▸ Clariant boosts mining chemical stake Clariant is stepping up its role as a mining chemicals supplier. The Swiss firm will acquire Chemical & Mining Services, an Australian supplier of chemicals and services to the mining industry. Clariant is also acquiring the mining chemicals business of SNF Flomin, a U.S. producer of mineral processing reagants that’s owned by the French firm SNF. Separately, Clariant has opened a mining application and development center in Tucson and expanded a plant in Reserve, La.—MICHAEL MCCOY
CONSUMER PRODUCTS
▸ BASF resin aids Reebok shoe project
China forces plants to move Because of increased safety concerns and new land-use plans, China is ordering some factories to relocate. AkzoNobel will spend $100 million to move and expand its facilities in Tianjin, a city where a massive explosion occurred at a hazardous materials warehouse in August 2015. At its new location in Tianjin’s Nangang Chemical Park, Akzo plans to increase capacity and upgrade safety and environmental features. In Tianjin, the firm produces chemicals including cold and ambient peroxides, thermoset peroxides, and cross-linking peroxides. Separately, the Shanghai government just paid $60 million to Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals as compensation for relocating one of its facilities. The joint venture of Hutchison China MediTech and Shanghai Pharmaceutical Holdings earlier received $31 million and will ultimately get $113 million for moving its plant. The plant was at a site 12 km south of Shanghai that was rezoned in 2014. The firms are now spending $95 million to build a facility further outside Shanghai with triple the original capacity.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
mold-based process, the factory will create shoe outsoles using a three-dimensional drawing technique. Robots squirt the liquid polyurethane in a lacey web that is wrapped around the rest of the shoe. Reebok currently produces all of its shoes at factories in Asia.—MICHAEL MCCOY
POLYMERS
▸ Styrolution will buy K-Resin business Chevron Phillips Chemical and Daelim Industrial will sell their K-Resin styrene-butadiene copolymers joint venture to Ineos Styrolution. The business operates a 50,000-metric-ton-per-year K-Resin plant in Yochon, South Korea. CPChem closed a larger K-Resin plant in Texas in 2014. K-Resin is used in packaging, consumer products such as refrigerator crisper trays, and toys. CPChem has been narrowing its focus to bulk petrochemicals. Last year, it sold its polyphenylene sulfide business to Solvay.—ALEX TULLO
Reebok’s new shoe is surrounded by a 3-D-drawn polyurethane support.
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FOOD INGREDIENTS
▸ DuPont invests big in probiotics DuPont will spend $100 million to expand probiotics production capacity in the U.S. The firm, which got into the business with its 2011 acquisition of Danisco, says it will boost capacity at plants in Madison, Wis., and Rochester, N.Y., by 70%. The two facilities are already being expanded as part of an earlier project. DuPont says consumers are increasingly turning to probiotics—beneficial strains of bacteria and yeast—to proactively take care of their health.—MICHAEL
MCCOY
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS Reebok plans to build a small factory in Rhode Island that will manufacture shoes incorporating a new polyurethane resin developed by BASF. Rather than rely on the traditional
rosin and resins from pine stump wood. It’s one of two units of Pinova Holdings, which Symrise acquired last year for $417 million from the private equity firm TorQuest Partners. Symrise is holding onto the other unit, Renessenz, which converts pine turpentine into fragrance and food ingredients. DRT recently opened its own pine chemicals plant in Georgia.—MICHAEL MCCOY
▸ Symrise pine chemicals plant goes to DRT The flavors and fragrances maker Symrise is selling Pinova to DRT, a French pine chemicals maker, for $150 million. Pinova operates facilities in Georgia that extract
START-UPS
▸ MIT’s The Engine is new incubator MIT has introduced The Engine, an incubator for science and technology start-ups that aim to solve global challenges. MIT says it is raising $150 million from investors, with $25 million coming from MIT, to fund an
CREDIT: REEBOK
POLLUTION
ever, lithium is more commonly obtained from brines in the deserts of Chile and Nevada.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS MIT President L. Rafael Reif announces The Engine in Cambridge, Mass. initial batch of 60 start-ups. Those accepted will participate in the incubator for up to 12 months, receiving financial investments, guidance, access to specialized equipment, and shared services. The Engine says it will provide developers of breakthrough innovations with the capital and support they need to move from the lab to the next development phase.—ALEX SCOTT
ENERGY STORAGE
▸ FMC to buy lithium from Quebec’s Nemaska FMC has signed a contract with Nemaska Lithium to purchase 8,000 metric tons per year of lithium carbonate, used to make battery materials, beginning in mid-2018. Nemaska has been working since 2009 to develop a spodumene mine and processing plant in Quebec. Spodumene, a lithium-containing volcanic rock deposit, is a common source of lithium in China and at Australia’s Talison mine. In the West, how-
▸ ChemChina-Syngenta deal draws EU probe The European Commission has begun an indepth probe to assess whether ChemChina’s planned acquisition of Syngenta is in line with European regulations. The probe will determine whether the deal would reduce competition in pesticides and other chemicals. A preliminary EC investigation already identified that ChemChina may be an important generics competitor for Syngenta. Syngenta is one of the world’s largest seed and pesticide companies. ChemChina controls Adama, Europe’s largest supplier of generic pesticide products. The Commission has until March 15, 2017, to decide if it will allow the acquisition.—ALEX SCOTT
DRUG DEVELOPMENT
▸ TaiGen, HEC form hepatitis venture TaiGen Biotechnology and HEC Pharmaceutical are forming a joint venture to develop hepatitis C virus treatments for China. HEC
Business Roundup
CREDIT: ANDY RYAN/MIT
▸ Shin-Etsu Chemical will spend $23 million to build a functional silicones plant at its base in Naoetsu, Japan. The company will also expand its silicone rubber technical center in Higashimatsuyama, Japan. Shin-Etsu claims to enjoy a 50% share of the Japanese silicones market. ▸ Evolva, a Swiss biotech firm, has signed a license agreement with ERS Genomics, the gene-editing technology firm started by Emmanuelle Charpentier, an inventor of CRISPR-Cas9 techniques. Evolva will gain access to CRISPR to engineer yeast and
fungi to produce ingredients for industrial applications. ▸ BASF says a fourth person has died from injuries sustained in a fire and explosions that occurred at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, headquarters in the early hours of Oct. 20. The firm says the explosion was likely caused by a contractor cutting the wrong pipeline. ▸ Vertellus Specialties has emerged from bankruptcy after selling itself to its lenders, a group that includes Black Diamond Capital Management and Brightwood Capital
will get a 51% stake for funding construction of a plant and contributing a drug candidate, yimitasvir, that recently started clinical trials in China. TaiGen will get a 49% stake for contributing furaprevir, which is undergoing Phase II trials in China and Taiwan. The two candidates—both oral drugs for interferon-free HCV regimens—are likely to be approved in China because they are similar to existing drugs, says Tommy Lin, HEC’s director of business development and licensing.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMICALS
▸ Lonza will supply Clovis drug Contract manufacturer Lonza will build a plant in Visp, Switzerland, to supply rucaparib, the active ingredient in Clovis Oncology’s PARP inhibitor. Lonza will open a new production H line in 2019 that will N provide dedicated supply H3C N H until 2025. N Rucaparib H targets cancer Rucaparib by inhibiting the DNA-repair enzymes poly-ADP ribose polymerase-1, 2, and 3. It is under FDA priority review for treating advanced ovarian cancer with a decision to come by February 2017.—ANN THAYER
Advisors. The specialty chemical maker says it has an improved capital structure and increased financial flexibility. ▸ Ferro has acquired Electro-Science Laboratories for $75 million in a bid to beef up its business in electronics packaging materials. ESL, based in King of Prussia, Pa., is projected to have earnings of about $9 million in 2016. ▸ Croda International has opened formulation laboratories in China, Indonesia, and South Korea for its personal, home, health, and crop care businesses. The firm says the labs will enhance collaboration with customers in the three countries.
▸ Third Rock Ventures has raised $616 million in its fourth investment fund. The health care venture capital firm says it has raised $1.9 billion since 2007 to build companies developing drugs in areas such as oncology, immunology, cardiovascular disease, and rare genetic diseases. ▸ Astellas Pharma will pay $468 million to acquire the oncology drug discovery firm Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, based in Mainz, Germany. Astellas will pay an additional $953 million to Ganymed shareholders if the company’s leading compound, an antibody, performs well in clinical trials.
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