Another Acquisition Completed! LANXESS Becomes One of the Largest Suppliers of Microbiological Control Products

On July 6, Lanxess, a specialty chemicals company, officially completed the acquisition of the microbial control business of International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF).

With the announcement of the closing of the transaction in August 2021, LANXESS becomes one of the world's largest suppliers of microbial control products. The specialty chemicals company is significantly increasing its portfolio of antimicrobial actives and formulations for material protection, preservatives and disinfectants, and strengthening its global operations, especially in the United States. To complete the acquisition, LANXESS paid an initial purchase price of approximately $1.3 billion.

Chang Mutian, Chairman of the Board of Management of the LANXESS Group, said: "This acquisition provides another major impetus for our consumer protection business segment, which will soon become our strongest business segment and will be This has become an important engine for improving the stability and profitability of LANXESS. We are delighted to welcome more than 250 highly qualified new employees, and we are now focusing our efforts on the rapid integration of the newly acquired businesses.”

With the closing of the transaction, LANXESS has added two production sites to its production network, in St. Charles, Louisiana, and Innsterthoth, West Virginia, USA. The new business will be integrated into LANXESS's Material Protection Products business unit.

The perfect complement to your material protection business

Michael Schaefer, Head of the Materials Protection Products business unit, said: "By combining the LANXESS operations and acquired businesses, we are now building a robust and broad platform of products and technologies for microbial control and biocides, ranging from active ingredients to powerful formulations. This enables us to offer our customers more application-oriented solutions and strengthen our value chain. The microbial control business also enables us to gain access to new technologies and strengthen our regulatory position through additional registrations.”

Strong and rich new product portfolio

The acquisition brings to LANXESS important biocidal active substances, a large registered project package and a strong brand, which are the perfect additions to LANXESS's microbial control portfolio.

At the same time, LANXESS is strengthening its position as the global leader in industrial preservatives and the largest supplier of isothiazolinone preservatives. LANXESS' Preventol products, combined with the newly acquired Kathon, Bioban and Rocima brands, form the broadest portfolio of wet and dry preservation products for paint coatings, building materials, wood preservation, leather and plastics.

LANXESS has further integrated silver technology into the product portfolio and can now offer complete solutions for the antimicrobial treatment of textiles. Silver ion products from the brand Silvadur can prevent or reduce odors from natural or synthetic fibers.

LANXESS also benefits from the addition of phenoxyethanol to its already large portfolio of personal care and household preservatives. In addition to isothiazolinone and sodium benzoate, phenoxyethanol is another pillar of LANXESS' customer preservation strategy, providing customers with tailor-made solutions that enable their preservation efforts to meet growing regulatory challenges.