Lonza said on Thursday it has struck a deal to sell its water care business to U.S. investment company Platinum Equity for $630 million.
Lonza, which said it was selling the business as part of its long-term strategy to focus on its health care business, expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2019. The inclusion of the French business in this transaction is still under discussion.
The water treatment and residential swimming pool care business has six manufacturing facilities, including North America, South America, Europe and South Africa, with roughly 1,200 employees.
Lonza said in May that it had taken on an investment bank to look at strategic options for the business that sells HTH brand swimming pool products.
Lonza, a chemicals and drug ingredients maker has been increasing its presence in the health care business, buying pill capsule maker Capsugel for $5.5 billion in 2016.
That deal was designed to expand its range of services beyond drug ingredient and production services the Basel company has traditionally supplied.
“We are putting the Water Care business in the hands of an experienced owner who will develop Water Care as a stand-alone business while focusing on innovation and further growth,” Lonza Chief Executive Richard Ridinger said.
“The divestment further strengthens our strategic focus on our three core pillars – Pharma & Biotech, Consumer Health and Consumer & Resources Protection – within the healthcare continuum.”
By John Revill
Source: Reuters
The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC), DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (NYSE: DD) and Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) (the “companies”) today announced they have reached an agreement in principle to comprehensively resolve all PFAS-related drinking water claims of a defined class of public water systems that serve the vast majority of the United States population.
The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place — coal. A team of Penn State scientists found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas, much like batteries store energy for future use, addressing a major hurdle in developing a clean energy supply chain.
WE Soda (London), a major producer of soda ash, said it intends to launch an IPO and apply to list its shares on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. The company, wholly owned by industrial conglomerate the Ciner Group (Istanbul, Turkey), said it is the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash.
