Croda International has acquired Spanish-based flavours and fragrances ( F & F ) firm Iberchem from Eurazeo in a € 820 million deal . This takes the company into F & F for the first time . It will be funded by existing debt facilities and a £ 600 equity placing . “ The acquisition supports Croda ’ s purpose of ‘ Using Smart Science to Improve Lives ’,” the company said . “ It also helps drive the group ’ s strategic objectives by focusing on faster growing core consumer markets , adding a new , high-growth adjacency to Croda ’ s existing personal care and home care businesses .” Iberchem is headquartered in Murcia and has 850 employees , 14 manufacturing facilities and ten R & D centres with 240 R & D technicians , including 22 perfumers and nine flavourists . It claims a commercial presence in about 120 countries . About 80 % of Iberchem ’ s sales , which should hit € 187 million in 2020 , are in fragrances for personal care and home care . The rest come from its Scentium flavours business , principally for food , pharmaceutical and oral care applications . The combined business will create a new full service formulation and fragrance offering , with Croda ’ s formulation capability complementing Iberchem ’ s expertise in fragrances . The key target customers will be regional , ‘ own-brand ’ and independent customers needing a full service offer . Croda expects to achieve cross-selling and other revenue synergies of at least € 25 million / year by the third year and € 48 million / year by the fifth . The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings in the first full financial year . The company said that it will also gain access to some 3,000 new customers , some in areas where it has been historically under-represented , such the Middle East , North Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America . Iberchem will continue to operate as an independent entity , under its existing management , “ but with extensive support from Croda ”. Separately , Scentium has opened a new 700 m 2 production centre in Tunis , Tunisia , next to the Iberchem Group ’ s existing fragrance facility . This is described as “ fully equipped for the production of liquid and powder flavours as well as emulsions ”, and includes a production plant , two warehouses , laboratory installations and offices .
Piramal expands API site in US
CDMO Piramal Pharma Solutions ( PPS ) is to invest about $ 32 million to expand its former Ash Stevens API manufacturing site at Riverview , Michigan . This will add 2,300 m 2 of space , including 780 m 2 of production space . It is expected to be open in summer 2022 and will create about 20 new jobs . The expansion includes two new reactors , one of 4,000 litres capacity in glass-line mild steel and one of 3,000 litres in Hastelloy ; two new kilo labs for process development and GMP manufacture for clinical trials at scales up to 100 litres ; and a 1 m 2 filter dryer with glovebox technology . These are all designed to handle potent compounds with OELs of > 1 µ g / m 3 . PPS is part of Piramal Enterprises ’ healthcare subsidiary , Piramal Pharma ( PPL ), which has recently agreed to buy the 49 % stake in Convergence Chemicals ( CCPL ) that it did not already own from Navin Fluorine . CCPL makes speciality fluorochemicals , which PPL uses as a starting material for anaesthetics . Navin Fluorine will take a perpetual licence to the technology for continuing use in speciality chemicals applications . It will continue to supply raw materials to CCPL . Completion of the $ 880,000 deal is subject to customary regulatory closing conditions .
Authorisation ' s ' positive impact '
The need to obtain REACH authorisation before using harmful chemicals “ has sped up substitution and reduced risks to people ’ s health and the environment - at a reasonable cost ”, according to a recent study by ECHA . Of 54 chemicals subject to authorisation , about half are no longer used and volume use for those that remain has fallen by 97 %. Where replacement is not yet feasible , the societal benefits of authorising specific uses in terms of jobs and product availability is estimated to be almost 20 times greater than the remaining health risks . The cost to EU companies applying for authorisation is about € 200,000 / use or an average of € 7-9 million / year for all applications .
14 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981