Business Roundup

BASF has acquired Mazzaferro Group’s nylon 6 business in Brazil for an undisclosed sum. The deal includes a plant in São Bernardo do Campo, near São Paulo, that has 20,000 metric tons per year of polymerization capacity and the ability to produce engineering plastics compounds.

Fluor has secured a contract from Reliance Industries to build coke gasification units, petro­chemical plants, and associated utilities at the firm’s massive complex in Jamnagar, India. Reliance recently unveiled plans to invest $8 billion by 2014 to expand in petrochemicals (C&EN, April 30, page 18).

Ineos is evaluating “strategic options,” including a sale, of its two high-density polyethylene plants, in Rosignano, Italy, and Sarralbe, France. Though the company says both plants are profitable, they are not integrated upstream with Ineos’ ethylene crackers.

BASF has acquired Equateq, a maker of highly concentrated omega-3 fatty acids for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industries. The firm’s facility on Scotland’s Isle of Lewis and its 47 employees will join BASF’s nutrition and health division.

K+S, a German producer of salt and specialty fertilizers, has sold its nitrogen fertilizer business to Russia’s EuroChem in a deal valued at about $180 million. Earlier this year, EuroChem acquired BASF’s fertilizer operation in Antwerp, Belgium.

H.B. Fuller is selling its Central American paints business to Colombia’s Compañia Global de Pinturas for $120 million. The business, which generated pretax profits of $13.3 million on sales of $113.5 million in 2011, makes marine, architectural, and highway paints.

Infineum, a lubricant additives joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil, has signed a letter of intent with the Zhang­jiagang Industrial Park in Jiangsu province, China, to build a manufacturing complex. The company says the complex will serve customers in China and the Asia-Pacific region and will become one of its largest operations within a decade.

Abbott Nutrition, a division of Abbott Laboratories, has announced a collaboration with Syngene, the contract research subsidiary of India’s Biocon, to establish Abbott’s first nutrition R&D center in India. The new facility will focus on the development of products for maternal and child nutrition as well as diabetes care for the Indian market.

Affymetrix has amended its deal to acquire eBioscience, a supplier of flow cytometry reagents. At an adjusted price of $315 million, or a reduction of $15 million, Affymetrix can decrease the amount of debt it will have to take on.

Sutro Biopharma has raised $16.5 million from investors that include Skyline Ventures, Lilly Ventures, Amgen Ventures, SV Life Sciences, and Alta Partners. The South San Francisco-based firm has synthesis technology to produce unique proteins and is developing antibody-drug conjugates.