LSI carve-out is completed

Lonza has completed the carve-out of its Lonza Specialty Ingredients, as announced in February. The business, temporarily known as LSI, will be relaunched shortly under a different name. It is now owned by Herens HoldCo, an entity controlled by private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven, who acquired it for an enterprise value of CHF 4.2 billion.

“This carve out is a transformational opportunity for LSI, enabling it to accelerate its growth strategy within the microbial control and specialty chemicals markets," commented Marc Doyle, the former DuPont CEO who has been named as the CEO of the new firm. The rest of the board comprises four from each of the owners plus former Cognis CEO as an independent director.

LSI, which is largely based around the former Arch Chemicals, is active through two divisions: Microbial Control Solutions, led by Frank Stahl, and Specialty Products Solutions, led by Antje Gerber. It is mainly in the health, hygiene, home and personal care, paints and coatings, advanced composites, electronics and wood treatment markets.

The company will continue to share Lonza’s main site at Visp there and will invest there “to enhance its technical capabilities and expand its portfolio of high-quality specialty chemicals”. Lonza itself is now solely focused on the healthcare sector.

Shortly beforehand, Lonza had announced that it is invest around €18 million in GMP laboratories and mid-scale manufacturing at its API centre in Nansha, China. These are due onstream between Q1 and Q3 2022. In all, the firm will add six 1,000-litre small molecule reactors, four 1,500-litre vessels and isolation equipment providing mid-scale capacity to bridge between early-phase and late-phase production. The new labs will also be able to make HPAPIs to GMP standards.