Business Roundup

Westlake Chemical has offered to acquire Nakan, a French maker of polyvinyl chloride compounds, from the private equity firm OpenGate Capital for about $265 million. Nakan has annual sales of $300 million.

Omnova Solutions has acquired Resiquímica, a Portuguese producer of alkyd, acrylic, and polyester resins and binders for the coatings and construction industries. Omnova says the firm, which has about $65 million in annual sales, will improve its geographic breadth.

Perstorp, the Swedish specialty chemical firm, says it has $150 million to spend on “growth opportunities.” The cash became available after Perstorp’s owner, PAI Partners, sold an undisclosed stake in Perstorp to a group of financial investors led by Landmark Partners.

Ube Maxell, a joint venture of Ube Industries and Maxell Holdings, will increase capacity for lithium-ion battery separators in Sakai, Japan. When the expansion is completed in 2020, Ube and Ube Maxell will have a combined separator capacity of 320 million m² per year.

Rayonier Advanced Materials has sold its thermoset resins business to LRBG Chemicals, a firm started by the business’s managers, for $16.5 million. Rayonier acquired the business with its 2017 purchase of Tembec.

Amyris, a renewable chemicals firm, has signed an agreement with China’s Yifan Pharmaceutical to develop a molecule for the nutrition market in China and elsewhere in the world. Amyris expects the pact to yield a business with $100 million or more of annual revenue.

TA Instruments, a subsidiary of Waters Corp., has acquired assets of Theta Industries, a maker of high-temperature thermophysical property measurement instruments. The assets complement TA’s line of high-temperature dilatometers, viscometers, and thermal analyzers.

Cancer Research UK is investing $18 million in an R&D center in London. It will unite scientists from the Francis Crick Institute, King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, and University College London under the goal of advancing precision medicines.