40 North ups Grace bid again

The firm 40 North Management has raised its takeover offer for W. R. Grace to $70 per share, valuing the specialty chemical company at $4.6 billion. 40 North, which owns nearlyz 15% of Grace, offered $60 per share in November and $65 in January. The new bid is its “best and final” offer, the firm said in a letter to Grace’s board. Grace is underperforming and would be better off as a private company, 40 North said. It added that it has “reservations” about Grace’s “questionably timed” purchase of Albemarle’s fine chemistry business, announced in February.