Business Concentrates

Lucite and Mitsubishi Rayon plan two methacrylate plants

U.K.-based Lucite International is joining Mitsubishi Rayon Co. in a collaboration to build new methyl methacrylate (MMA) plants in Singapore and the U.S. The move comes on the heels of Degussa's decision to expand its methacrylates capacity (C&EN, June 20, page 20). The Lucite-MRC deal will add a total of 260,000 metric tons per year of capacity over the next four years. Lucite will build a 120,000-metric-ton plant in Singapore by the end of 2007, while MRC will build a 140,000-metric-ton plant somewhere in Texas by the end of 2009. The Singapore plant will feature Lucite's Alpha process, which uses ethylene as a feedstock; MRC's plant features its own proprietary C₄ process. Each party will supply the other with product from the new facilities. "We believe there will be significant benefits for both companies' customers as these plants come onstream," Lucite CEO Ian Lambert says. Each company is also expanding its own production: Lucite is currently commissioning a 100,000-metric-ton MMA plant in Shanghai, and MRC is building a 90,000-metric-ton plant near Shanghai to come onstream next year.

Cytec to divest amino resins

Cytec Industries has reached a definitive agreement to sell an amino resins business to Ineos for $78 million. Cytec acquired the business when it bought UCB's surface specialties business for $1.8 billion earlier this year. While Cytec will hold onto its own amino resins unit, the sale of the surface specialties unit will satisfy U.S. and European regulatory conditions to which Cytec agreed when it made its deal with UCB last fall.

Rohm and Haas to take charges

Rohm and Haas will take charges of up to $35 million for excess inventories and higher-than-expected maintenance costs. Imports of Chinese leather goods into Europe hurt sales of leather treatment and gloss lamination chemicals to European firms and will result in a charge of $16 million to $20 million. Rohm and Haas will take an additional $15 million charge because of higher-than-planned costs for maintenance and lost production at its Deer Park, Texas, facility.

Solvay slates F₂ specialties ...

Solvay intends to build a plant for making fluorine, sulfur hexafluoride, and iodine pentafluoride in Onsan, South Korea. The company says the plant will open in 2007 at a cost of some $65 million and serve Southeast Asia, which it calls the world's fastest growing market for fluorine specialties. Solvay Fluor, which operates plants in Europe and North America, says this will be its first facility in Asia.

... and sets bid for Girindus

Avecia spin-off Reaxa launched

Reaxa, formed to commercialize encapsulated catalyst technology called EnCat, became a stand-alone company last week following a spin-off from Avecia. The firm is a venture between management, chemistry professor Steven V. Ley of the University of Cambridge, and Avecia. External investment was raised by Acceleris Corporate Ventures. The firm expects annual sales to exceed $20 million by 2009.

Degussa moves in batteries

Degussa and the Japanese battery developer Enax are establishing a 50-50 joint venture in the field of materials for lithium-ion batteries. Under the deal, Degussa will acquire a license to produce electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. The joint venture will make the electrodes in Anqiu, in China's Shandong province, supplying them to Enax and, later, to other Asian battery makers. Degussa already markets a ceramic battery membrane called Separion and says the new deal is part of a plan to become the "preferred system provider" for lithium-ion battery materials.

GSK allies with Vitae ...

GlaxoSmithKline is forming an alliance with Vitae Pharmaceuticals to develop drugs to treat hypertension and other cardiovascular disorders. Vitae used its drug discovery technology to develop a chemical series of renin inhibitors. Renin, an enzyme, plays an important role in regulating blood pressure. Part of the up-front payment to Vitae will be in cash, and part will be an equity investment. Total payments to Vitae could reach $175 million.

... and partners with a nonprofit

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals is launching an R&D cooperation with the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The goal of the project is to develop a vector that would be a component of an AIDS vaccine. The idea is to use GSK vectors derived from adenoviruses that were isolated from nonhuman primates. These vectors need to be engineered so that they stimulate immune responses against HIV when they are injected.

Clariant sells MCAA business

Clariant is selling its subsidiary Clariant Acetyl Building Blocks (CABB) to the Dutch private equity firm Gilde Buy-Out Fund for just under $60 million. Expected to close in the third quarter, the sale is part of the company's strategy to sell off noncore businesses. CABB specializes in chlorine and acetyl chemistry; its main product is the intermediate monochloroacetic acid (MCAA). CABB had 2004 sales of roughly $140 million, with two manufacturing sites in Germany and 300 employees. Gilde purchased DSM's bakery ingredients business earlier this year.

Clinical Data set to acquire Genaissance

Clinical Data will acquire Genaissance Pharmaceuticals for approximately $56 million in an all-stock move. Clinical Data CEO Israel M. Stein says he views the acquisition as "a strong fit" for his company as it enters the molecular diagnostics market. Clinical Data currently sells blood chemistry instrumentation and diagnostic assays. It sees growth in the physician laboratory market, where pharmacogenomic tests offering an indication of a patient's response to drugs may begin to play a role. Genaissance has developed several of these DNA-based diagnostic tests.

Chemical prices decline in May

In May, for the first time since July 2003, the producer price index for chemicals fell from its level in the previous month, according to data from the Labor Department. The government reports that the index for all chemicals in May was 188.7 (1982 = 100), down 0.6% from April. Nevertheless, it was 10.4% ahead of where it was in May of last year. Meanwhile, prices for industrial chemicals declined 2.8% from April to 187.8, but were still up 17.8% from the comparable month in 2004.

GNI, Shanghai company merge

GNI Ltd., a drug discovery company with labs in the U.K. and Japan, has merged with Shanghai Genomics, a Chinese drug discovery company that seeks new treatments for fibrosis, infectious diseases, and cancer. With a staff of 80 researchers, the combined company will continue operating as GNI, but two Chinese executives, Ying Luo and Jun Wu, will assume the positions of president and chief scientific officer, respectively. At the same time, GNI has raised $13 million in financing from investors.

Polypropylene moves in Brazil

Suzano Petroqumica has agreed to purchase Basell's 50% interest in Polibrasil, giving it full control of the Brazilian polypropylene maker. Basell, in turn, will buy out Polibrasil's polypropylene compounding business. For Suzano, the net purchase price is $240 million. Separately, Braskem is going ahead with a $240 million polypropylene project in partnership with the chemical arm of Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company. The firms plan to build a 300,000-metric-ton-per-year plant in Paulinia, So Paulo state, by 2007. Petrobras will supply raw material propylene for the facility.

Reliance will split in two

In an agreement brokered by their mother, the top two managers of Reliance Industries, brothers Mukesh and Anil D. Ambani, have agreed to end a feud over control of the company that has been festering for months. Since the death of their father, Dhirubhai Ambani, in 2002, elder brother Mukesh has been chairman and managing director of Reliance, while Anil has been vice chairman and managing director. Anil has agreed to resign from Reliance Industries, but he will gain control of group companies Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Capital, and Reliance Energy. Mukesh will remain in charge of Reliance Industries, one of the world's largest petrochemical companies.

BUSINESS ROUNDUP

Fuji Photo Film has boosted to 30% its stake in Sanritz, a maker of polarizers for liquid-crystal displays. Enjoying a 10% global market share, Sanritz is one of four producers of LCD polarizers, along with Nitto Denko, Sumitomo Chemical, and LG Chem.

Lanxess is seeking a possible partner or purchaser for Dorlastan, its spandex fibers business. In April, Lanxess separated its two synthetic fibers businesses, Dorlastan spandex and polyester/nylon monofilament, into two stand-alone companies.

Ticona is planning to build a 20,000-metric-ton-per-year, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene plant in the Asia-Pacific region, bringing its capacity for the product to 90,000 metric tons per year. The company says the capacity will start up in the second half of 2007.

Novasep and Rohm and Haas's advanced biosciences unit have formed a partnership by which they will market Novasep's chromatographic separation systems in combination with Rohm and Haas's Amberchrom HPR10 ion-exchange resins, a polymeric adsorption media.

BIO Ventures for Global Health, a nonprofit founded by the Biotechnology Industry Organization to address medical needs in the developing world, has received a $5.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BIO announced the grant at BIO 2005 in Philadelphia last week.

Hovione has entered a long-term agreement to supply Allos Therapeutics with efaproxiral, the active ingredient in Allos' Efaproxyn cancer drug, now in Phase III trials. The two firms have worked together since 1997.

Hercules, the only U.S. maker of carboxymethylcellulose, has won a ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission that places duties on imports. The ruling covers imports from Finland, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Sweden from producers including J.M. Huber's Noviant unit, Akzo Nobel, and Qumica Amtex.