Lonza specialties business launches as new firm

Lonza’s former specialty ingredients business (LSI) has launched as an independent company with a goal of growing through both acquisition and internal expansion. The firm, which will take a new name in the coming months, is owned by Bain Capital and Cinven, private equity firms that agreed in February to buy the business from Lonza for about $4.5 billion. LSI had sales last year of about $1.8 billion, roughly two-thirds from microbial control products and one-third from specialty chemicals, including composites and the vitamin niacin. Its CEO is Marc Doyle, a PhD chemical engineer and longtime DuPont executive who was DuPont’s CEO for about a year. He says LSI’s new owners are prepared to invest more in the company than was Lonza, which was focused on its pharmaceutical service business. LSI offers about half the 10 major biocides, Doyle says, including isothiazolinones, pyrithiones, and hydantoins. He says he sees opportunities to acquire new biocidal chemistries and to push further into the home and personal care arena with natural and renewable antimicrobial products.