JPMorgan Chase’s main PE arm – One Equity Partners – and the Turkish army pension fund Oyak may make a bid this year to acquire a stake in chemicals company Akdeniz Kimya. The company, located in Izmir on the Aegean coast, manufactures specialty chemicals and is currently valued at around USD 300 mln. A deal to [...]

CapMan Russia has made yet another investment, this time in Russian laboratory analysis equipment and chemical reagents for testing.

Central Europe’s leading manufacturer and supplier of household care products, Bochemie, has broadened its offerings by purchasing a 100% share of the Lybar a.s. Lybar is the leading manufacturer of insecticides under the brand name BIOLIT, in the Czech and Slovak areas. At the time of the sale, Lybar only had three shareholders. Biolit currently [...]

Following the recent trend of Russian investors pumping private equity funding into the growth rounds of Western companies, RU-COM’s Bright Capital has joined other investors in providing USD 45 million to Genomatica. The investment, which brings the total raised by the San Diego bio-process company to USD 84 million, enables Genomatica to further develop renewable [...]

Dmitry Firtash’s Group DF has acquired Ukrainian fertilizer maker Stirol. The company will be added to Ostchem Group, Group DF’s chemical holding group which also includes AT Nitrofert (Estonia), Rivneazot (Ukraine), Tajikazot (Tajikistan). Estimates based on company valuation suggest the deal to be worth bewteen USD 650 million to USD 750 million. Former majority owner [...]

CapMan Plc has announced a partial exit from its Lumene investment of 2003. The firm has joined co-investor Langholm Capital in selling its interest in Farmos Holding Oy to KilltoClean Oy, which plans to merge the two under the Kiilto name. Farmos was spun off from Lumene in 2008, and various CapMan funds combined to [...]

Acting on a request from its nation’s government, Croatian oil company INA has agreed to sell the Crobenz petrol chain to Progress Trading of Slovakia, associated to Slavia Capital. The government request was issued by the Croatian anti-trust agency after MOL increased its INA stake to 47% last year, making the company’s total market share [...]

Hungary’s BorsodChem chemicals group has secured a sizable amount of funding to help stabilize its liquidity and build a new production facility. The funding comes by way of an initial €30 million financing package from China’s Wanhua Industrial Group designed to help BorsodChem restructure its current debt load. Once restructuring is complete Wanhua may exercise an [...]

Poland’s PKN Orlen has announced it has put Czech chemical company Spolana Neratovice on the sale block and will enter final talks with three possible buyers in January 2010. The names of the buyers have not been disclosed, nor has the sale price, but estimates suggest PKN Orlen could make more than Kč 10 billion [...]

Despite rumors surrounding the possible sale of BorsodChem, officials with the Hungarian chemical company’s owners insist they have no immediate plans to sell. Permira, the London based PE fund that owns BorsodChem, has responded to the rumors by stating it has long term plans to continue with BorsodChem for at least another three to four [...]

The owner of Hungarian chemical company Borsodchem has two potential investments on the horizon as it seeks to restructure the company’s debt. The first investment comes via Chinese firm Wanhua Industrial Group who is in talks with Permira to acquire a stake in Borsodchem. Wanhua has already purchased upwards of €200 million worth of mezzanine debt from [...]

BorsodChem, the troubled Hungarian chemical company acquired by British PE firm Permira in 2006, is in line to receive a much needed loan from state owned bank Hungarian Development Bank. The € 100 million loan is contingent upon BorsodChem being able to restructure it’s debt load, which is estimated to be € 1.1billion, in a [...]

Polish convenience store giant Žabka has reached a deal to acquire the retail operations of Czech based Palma-Tumys from Slavia Capital. The purchase includes five stores selling food and mixed goods in Prague. Žabka intends to transform and re-brand the stores to match the rest of the company’s outlets by the end of the year. [...]

Hungarian chemical producer BorsodChem has reportedly put its PVC division up for sale and is currently talking with potential buyers. The move comes as BorsodChem seeks to concentrate on its isocyanates business. BorsodChem officials believe that the Eastern European PVC industry is fractured and needs to be consolidated to survive. The sale of their PVC [...]

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has promised to supply iodine plant Azer-Yod with a USD 15 million loan to assist the company with expansion and modernization plans. The loan, one of the largest by EBRD into Azerbaijan, will assist the company with its plan to become the largest supplier of iodine in [...]

Diatron and its shareholder Riverside Company acquired UV-Vis Metrolab S.A., an Argentinian manufacturer of automated clinical chemistry analyzers for the human medical market. Metrolab provides key contributions to the overall goal of developing an international in vitro diagnostics (“IVD”) group. UV-Vis metrolab S.A. (www.metrolab.com.ar) For more than 25 years, UV-Vis Metrolab, has designed, manufactured and [...]

Romanian American Enterprise Fund (“REAF”) signed a sale option agreement with Romanian Investment Fund (“RIF”) and RC2 Limited for 33.23% of dye and paint producer Policolor. The offer is due to close on November 3, 2008. The total value of the transaction is € 27.5 million. Following the transaction, RIF and RC2 would together control [...]

Oresa Ventures, the Swedish Investment Fund has increased its stock share from 49% to 85% in Fabryo Corporation. Two years after its initial investment, Ores Ventures acquired an additional 46% stake from Fabryo’s founding shareholders. 36% came from Irina Guzu, while David Guzu sold a small portion of his shares, but will remain on the [...]

Greek chemical manufacturer Neochimiki L.V. Lavrentiadis S.A. Industrial and Commercial Company has been acquired by the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm based in Washington, D.C. Carlyle has purchased 73.54% of the shares at a price of € 19 per share. Former Chairman and CEO Lavrentis Lavrentiadis sold Carlyle 20% of the shares, with the [...]

Advent International has agreed to sell Bolix, a leading Polish provider of Exterior Insulation Finish Systems (EIFS) for the business to business market to Berger Paints India Ltd., one of India’s largest paint manufacturers. Bolix (www.bolix.pl) Bolix is a leading Polish producer of building chemistry, specialized in EIFS. Bolix offers professional elevation materials and materials [...]