Business Roundup

Solvay will expand capacity for ultra-pure soda ash at its site in Dombasle, France, to 5,000 metric tons per year by the end of September. The product, destined for the pharmaceutical industry, will be made under FDA's current Good Manufacturing Practice standards.

Dynea has acquired the formaldehyde manufacturing operations of Formaldehydwerk Schwarze Pumpe, located near Dresden, Germany. FSP is the formaldehyde supplier to Dynea's resins plants in Germany and Poland.

Evotec is acquiring the equipment and expertise of Combinature Biopharm in a drive to enhance its fragment-based drug discovery business. The buy also brings Evotec access to an Abbott Laboratories technique licensed for determining structure-activity relationships by NMR.

Sasol plans to double capacity for synthetic waxes in South Africa. Manufactured via the Fischer-Tropsch process, the waxes are used to make hot-melt adhesives, polymers, inks, and high-performance bitumen modifiers. The project is in two phases set for completion in 2010 and 2013.

SGL Group will build a third carbon-fiber line at its Inverness, Scotland, site. The 1,500-metric-ton-per-year addition will cost about $53 million and raise capacity at the site by 50%.

Actavis' board of directors has recommended that shareholders reject an offer from Novator, an investment firm led by Actavis Chairman Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson, to take the company private. The board of the Icelandic generic drug company believes the price is too low.

Bristol-Myers Squibb pleaded guilty in federal court for lying to the Federal Trade Commission about a patent settlement deal with generic drugmaker Apotex over the Canadian firm's version of the BMS blood-thinning drug Plavix. The company will pay a $1 million fine.

Brunner Mond will build a $20 million sodium bicarbonate plant in northwest England targeted at flue-gas treatment applications. The plant is expected to have a capacity of 50,000 metric tons per year and start up in the first half of 2009.

Delphi, an auto parts maker, has agreed to sell its car exhaust catalyst business to the Belgian metals firm Umicore for $55.6 million. Last year, Delphi's catalyst business had an operating loss of $2 million on sales of $162 million.