Covestro, Altana to sell 3-D printing businesses

The German chemical companies Covestro and Altana have each agreed to divest 3D-printing businesses.

Covestro says it will sell its 3D-printing unit to the Israeli additive manufacturing specialist Stratasys for $44 million plus a potential performance-related bonus of $38 million. Covestro aims to close the deal in the first quarter of 2023.

Covestro says the sale is part of an ongoing process of business portfolio optimization. “Additive manufacturing is a growing, but also highly competitive market,” Thomas Toepfer, Covestro’s chief financial officer, says in a press release.

The Covestro business includes a portfolio of 60 3D-printing polymers and other materials plus hundreds of pending patents. Also in the package are R&D facilities, plants, and offices across China, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US. The business includes 3D-printing activities that Covestro acquired in 2020 as part of its $1.8 billion purchase of DSM’s resins and functional materials business.

Separately, the US 3D-printing specialist 3D Systems has acquired the German 3D-printing start-up DP Polar for an undisclosed sum. The deal involves the purchase of an unspecified stake in DP from the German specialty chemical firm Altana, which invested in DP in 2017.

DP Polar has developed a rotating 3D-printing system that enables the high-speed printing of components for a variety of applications. Altana will continue to make its Cubic Ink brand of 3D-printing materials.