Reuters — Lanxess AG said on Sunday it would buy specialty chemical company Chemtura Corp. for about US$2.5 billion, to improve the German company’s additives business.
Lanxess’s offer of US$33.50 for each Chemtura share represents a premium of about 19 per cent to the Philadelphia-based company’s close on Friday.
The world’s largest synthetic rubber maker will use existing funds and new debt to buy Chemtura in a deal with an enterprise value of about 2.4 billion euros (C$3.5 billion), Lanxess said in a statement.
The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close around mid-2017, Chemtura said in a separate statement.
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Chemtura’s Canadian assets include chemical manufacturing plants at Elmira, Ont., north of Kitchener, and in the Toronto area at West Hill.
The company’s product lines include seed treatments, restricted-use fumigants for stored crops and soils, and ingredients and intermediate chemicals for crop pesticide manufacturers.
Chemtura’s urethanes business also makes various specialty parts for agricultural equipment, such as beet harvester flails, sugar cane conditioner rolls, cotton doffers, nut tree shaker pads, pig pacifiers and chicken pluckers.
Lanxess also recently announced the closing of its 210 million-euro (C$310 million) deal to buy the clean-and-disinfect business of U.S. chemical firm Chemours.
Chemours’ product lines include veterinary disinfectants such as Virkon S, a powdered germicide used in barns, food processing plants and veterinary hospitals against outbreaks of pathogens such as avian influenza or foot-and-mouth disease.
— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Bangalore. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.
