Business Roundup

Dow plans to spend $300 million in the next 5 years to expand its ­capacity in Zhangjiagang, China, for silicone intermediates and finished products. The firm says the investment reflects its confidence in China as a rapidly growing market.

Nouryon will acquire Sasol’s merchant business in triethyl aluminum, a metal alkyl used in polymer manufacture. Sasol plans to move production to its recently expanded site in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Momentive seated Sam Conzone as its president and CEO on April 6. Conzone was chief operating officer during the firm’s $3 billion sale last year to a group of South Korean investors. He succeeds retiring CEO Jack Boss.

Röhm, the former Evonik Industries acrylics business, has increased production of Plexiglas sheets at its site in Weiterstadt, Germany. The firm says demand for the material as a safety barrier has risen sharply.

Evonik Industries has postponed its annual shareholders meeting from May 27 to Aug. 31 because of the spread of the new coronavirus in Germany. The specialty chemical maker will decide at the meeting how much money it will return as a dividend to shareholders.

Ilika, a UK start-up that designs and makes solid-state batteries, has raised $16 million from UK investors that it will use to buy manufacturing equipment to scale up production. Applications for its technology include medical devices and electric vehicles.

Amphista Therapeutics has launched with $7.5 million to develop bifunctional small molecules as cancer therapies. The company is based on the targeted protein degradation work of scientific founder Alessio Ciulli, a chemist at the University of Dundee.

Aspen Neuroscience, a start-up in San Diego, has raised $70 million in series A financing to develop neuron-replacement therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Aspen uses a person’s own cells to make induced pluripotent stem cells, which it then turns into neurons used as a therapy.