Business Roundup

Bayer MaterialScience will sell its thermoplastics testing center in Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany, to Underwriters Laboratories for an undisclosed sum. All 65 employees at the center will be taken on by UL, which plans to extend its own portfolio of testing and certification services.

Altana is acquiring the plastics additives business of DyStar, which specializes in textile chemicals and dyes. The business, with annual sales of about $10 million, will be integrated into Altana's BYK additives and instruments division.

Lucite International will stop making methacrylic acid in Belle, W.Va., by early 2010. Lucite will continue to make other methacrylate monomers at the plant.

EMD Serono, the U.S. pharmaceutical affiliate of Germany's Merck, plans to open a site in Cambridge, Mass., to support research activities in neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The new site, to open in 2010, will accommodate 50 scientists with expertise in neurobiology, pharmacology, and chemistry.

Linde will supply industrial gases to Abu Dhabi-based Masdar PV for a photovoltaic manufacturing facility in Ichtershausen, Germany. Masdar is also building a plant in Taweelah, United Arab Emirates, near Abu Dhabi. The two plants will produce 5.7-m² thin-film silicon modules and have a combined capacity of 210 MW.

Young & Partners and Eureka Capital Partners, both investment banking firms, are joining forces to provide restructuring advisory services to the chemical industry. The partners say they will target distressed chemical companies and their creditors, shareholders, and potential investors.

H.B. Fuller will acquire Nordic Adhesives of Buxtehude, Germany. A maker of polyurethane-based adhesives for flexible packaging, Nordic had sales of $9 million last year.

Bayer CropScience has acquired biocontrol products from Israel's Agrogreen and plans to develop them as seed treatments. The assets include BioNem, a bacteria-based pesticide used to reduce nematode populations and root infestations.

Innospec has named Patrick S. Williams president and CEO. Williams has been with the firm since 1993, most recently as president of fuel specialties. He replaces Paul W. Jennings, who resigned because of a government investigation into Innospec's involvement with the United Nations' scandal-ridden Oil-for-Food Program.