Chemtura to acquire Kaufman

Chemtura has signed a deal to acquire lubricant maker Kaufman Holdings for an undisclosed sum. Privately held Kaufman has annual sales in excess of $200 million and employs about 300 people at two New Jersey facilities and one in Canada. Alex Kaufman, 82, president of the lubricants firm and a Nazi concentration camp survivor, turned a one-time commodity plasticizer company into a maker of polyol esters and synthetic lubricants. He says Chemtura has the global scale and specialty chemical expertise needed to expand the Kaufman businesses. Separately, Chemtura entered a series of long-term bromine supply agreements with oil services firm Tetra Technologies. The deal gives Tetra access to brine extracted from wells at Chemtura's El Dorado, Ark., facility in return for an undisclosed investment. Tetra will also build an adjacent plant to produce, by 2010, liquid and flake calcium chloride, sodium chloride, and magnesium hydroxide. Tetra uses the bromine and salts to create clear brine fluids used in oil-well drilling. As a result of the deal, Tetra says it won't build a previously announced bromine plant.