Business Roundup

SI Group has sold its industrial resin business to ASK Chemicals, a German maker of resins for the foundry market. The sale, which includes facilities in Brazil, India, and South Africa, puts ASK into the phenolic resin business.

Charkit Chemical has acquired Custom Ingredients and CA Specialties, sister companies that make and distribute ingredients for personal care and other markets. Cathy Ayer Clark will continue to lead the sister firms.

Evonik Industries and Perstorp will jointly research animal nutrition products that replace antibiotics. The partnership will combine Evonik’s gut health simulation system with Perstorp organic acid technology.

Ayas Renewables says that it has finished engineering for a glycerin-to-propylene glycol plant and that it is now scouting for a site to build it in the US. The firm is commercializing technology developed at the University of Missouri.

Asahi Kasei plans to increase capacity for synthetic suede at its plant in Nobeoka, Japan. To be completed by 2021, the project will raise capacity for Lamous-brand suede by 40% to 14 million m² per year.

BASF will collaborate with Riffyn, a firm specializing in cloud-based scientific data software, to boost its development of biobased products and fermentation processes. The deal will give BASF capabilities in machine-learning-driven experiment design and data analysis.

Kronos Bio, one of C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2018, has raised $105 million in series A financing to advance two programs. The company is developing cancer treatments with small-molecule microarray technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemist Angela Koehler.

Gilead Sciences’ chief scientific officer, John McHutchison, will leave the firm in August. His replacement has yet to be named. Earlier this month, former Eli Lilly and Company executive Christi Shaw was named CEO of Gilead’s cell-therapy arm, Kite Pharma.