AkzoNobel Adds To Specialty Chemicals

AkzoNobel has signed agreements to acquire specialty chemicals businesses in Germany and Asia that the company says will strengthen its product offerings to paper and polymer chemical makers.

In the first deal, Akzo has agreed to acquire the silica sol business of Germany's H.C. Starck Group. In the second, it will acquire two organic peroxide lines from China's Jiangsu Qiangsheng. The companies did not disclose financial details.

Rob Frohn, the Akzo board member responsible for specialty chemicals, says, "These two transactions underline our strategic commitment to grow our existing portfolio" and will improve the firm's ability to serve customers in global markets.

Starck's silica sol unit is based in Leverkusen, Germany, where it produces 30,000 metric tons per year of the colloidal dispersions of silicon dioxide used in paper coatings, semiconductor polishing compounds, and as a concrete additive. The unit employs 50 people.

Starck is the former metal and ceramics subsidiary of Bayer, which sold the business to the private equity firms the Carlyle Group and Advent International more than a year ago. Akzo says it expects to complete the silica acquisition by the end of September.

Jiangsu Qiangsheng, China's largest maker of organic peroxides, is selling two organic peroxide lines used mainly to make keyboard pads and silicone rubber. Customers are primarily in China, Taiwan, and Korea. Jiangsu also makes pharmaceutical intermediates, reagents, and other specialty chemicals. Akzo says it expects to complete the peroxides transaction by the end of June.