Huntsman shareholders have voted to elect all ten of its director nominees to the board at their AGM, giving the management an important victory over ‘activist’ shareholder Starboard, which had been trying to steer the firm in a different direction. It can now continue to follow the strategy outlined at an Investor Day in November 2021, subject to final results.
In order to “maximise customer centricity and market focus” and continue an ongoing transition into “a system solutions partner for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries”, Evonik has divided its Health Care business into three distinct units.
Drug Substance encompasses the company’s CDMO services for active APIs, including HPAPIs, and intermediates plus generics. It is headed by Dr Stefan Randl, an industry veteran of 15 years who has been leading projects in mRNA and gene therapies since 2020.
Oilfield chemicals player Baker Hughes and Dussur, which is co-owned by Sabic and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, have signed an agreement to form a joint venture company to make oilfield and industrial chemicals in Saudi Arabia.
The 51-49 venture includes Baker Hughes’ existing chemical blend plant in Dammam and manufacturing facility in Jubail. The latter will supply the Saudi market while expanding localisation opportunities. The deal is expected to close in Q3.
Barentz International has continued its ongoing series of acquisitions with two more distributors of life science ingredients and specialty chemicals, one based in France and the other in Latin America. Both are described as being aligned with its growth strategy of becoming the leading global life science distributor.
Greentech firm Afyren has announced the industrial commissioning of its Afyren Neoxy plant on schedule and within budget. The plant at Carling Saint-Avold in eastern France began construction in 2H 2020. It is the first industrial-scale factory for the production of biobased carboxylic acids from sugar beet co-products.
IMCD has opened its new Mexican headquarters. This covers an area of 810 m2 in a LEED Gold-certified building in the Torre Polanco development in Mexico City. It will be a centralised hub for the company’s digitalisation initiatives, formulation capabilities and business operations.
Helsinki-based nanoparticle medicine specialist Nanoform has completed a new share issue, in the process raising about €25 million from global and Nordic institutional investors. This will mainly be used to build a GMP manufacturing site in the US, where most of the company’s customers are.
