Swiss specialty chemicals firm Lonza to buy US rival Arch Chemicals for $1.2 bn

Swiss specialty chemicals and biotechnology company Lonza Group Ltd plans to buy US-listed Arch Chemicals for about $1.2 billion in cash, creating the world's largest microbial control company.

Under the deal approved by the board of Arch Chemicals, Lonza will pay $47.20 per share in cash, a premium of 36.7 per cent to the US group's average closing price over the last 30 trading days.

Arch Chemicals is a global biocides company, which provides innovative, chemistry-based and related solutions to destroy or to selectively inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms.

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company is concentrated in the areas of water treatment, personal care, health and hygiene, industrial preservation and protection, and wood treatment. Arch has approximately 3,000 employees and manufacturing and customer-support facilities in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

The proposed acquisition will make Lonza the world's leading microbial control company with 2010 pro-forma sales in this life science market of approximately $1.6 billion.

The combined business will have a broad line-up of regulatory approved microbial control active ingredients, which will allow Lonza to bring to market new innovative microbial control formulations and thereby grow revenues across the portfolio.