Clariant Continues to Slim down

Clariant has agreed to sell its Lancaster Synthesis unit to Johnson Matthey for roughly $25 million. And it is mulling the sale of another of its noncore businesses, electronic materials. Lancaster had sales last year of about $35 million in small-quantity lots of organic chemicals to industrial and academic researchers through catalog sales and through distribution facilities in the U.S., Germany, France, and India. Johnson Matthey intends to combine the business, located in northwestern England, with its own research chemicals business, which includes Avocado Research Chemicals, acquired two years ago. Meanwhile, German press reports indicate that Clariant is in advanced talks with U.S. private equity company Carlyle Group over the sale of Clariant's electronic materials division for about $400 million. This business had sales last year of some $360 million in a variety of products, including photoresists, dielectric materials, antireflective coatings, and ancillary chemicals.