Versum Materials Rejects Mercks USD5.9 bn takeover offer

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Versum Materials Inc. rejected a USD5.9 billion takeover offer from Merck KGaA, and said it’s committed to completing the previously announced merger with Entegris Inc., said Bloomberg.

"After careful review and consideration, conducted in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, the Versum board concluded that Merck KGaA’s proposal is not a superior proposal," the company said in a statement Friday.

Earlier this week German conglomerate Merck made a USD48-a-share offer in an attempt to break up the USD3.8 billion planned merger between the two U.S. makers of semiconductor components. Under the terms of the merger agreement with Entegris announced on Jan. 28, Versum shareholders would receive 1.120 shares of Entegris for each existing Versum share.

The combination with Entegris is expected to close in the second half, Versum said. German Merck isn’t related to U.S.-based health care company Merck & Co.

Merck believes that its USD48 a-share proposal is clearly superior and represents a 51.7 percent premium to the Versum share price before the Entegris deal was announced, the company said in a statement. "We believe our proposal represents a full and fair price for the company," the statement said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maroon Group (Avon, Ohio) has named Terry Hill to succeed Mark E. Reichard as CEO, effective 1 May, said Chemweek.

Reichard will remain executive vice chairman, in which role he will manage key customer and principal relationships. Mike McKenna, COO of Maroon, will add the role of president.

Reichard has been with Maroon, a distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients in the United States, for 37 years. Hill joined Maroon’s board of directors in 2017 after spending 30 years with Univar, where he held a range of executive positions including executive vice president and chief commercial officer. McKenna has been with Maroon for 15 years.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products has completed the acquisition of ACP Europe SA (ACP), the largest independent carbon dioxide (CO2) business in Continental Europe, said Gasworld.

The Tier One company announced the definitive agreement to purchase ACP Europe SA back in February (2018). Concluding the deal enables Air Products to better serve existing customers and pursue new industrial gas growth opportunities.

Customers will now benefit from an expanded liquid CO2 supply position across additional European geographies and greater density throughout Continental Europe.

"This is a good, logical deal. The ACP CO2 business complements our own and provides a solid platform to deliver customer value and pursue further European industrial gas growth," said Ivo Bols, Air Products’ Industrial Gases President in Europe and Africa.

"I have no doubt that our customers will benefit from a stronger portfolio as well as the collective and complementary expertise of our combined team," Bols continued. "With over 120 years of CO2 experience, we have built a quality, well-managed business that deliver," commented Jan De Ridder, Director, ACP.

"Becoming part of Air Products means we can look to the future with great optimism," said Ridder. ACP serves customers across a variety of applications including beverage, chemical, food and horticulture. It has more than 120 employees, four liquid CO2 production plants (with an additional facility under construction) and two dry ice production locations across Europe.

All required customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals have been satisfied. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Elliott Group has announced the grand opening of its new manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, India, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new factory shares the same campus as the company’s existing service center in the Bidadi Industrial Area southwest of Bengaluru. Fully staffed and equipped to design, manufacture and test Elliott YR steam turbines, the facility also houses engineering, sales and service offices, as well as a state-of-the-art training center.

The Bengaluru YR factory represents an expansion of Elliott’s long-time presence in India and its global capabilities, including major manufacturing facilities in Japan and the US. "This new facility will allow us to better serve our in-country customers and new clients, and it will be strategic in the growth of our business," said Nick Dorsch, Vice President of Industrial Products.

Elliott’s new 5,000 square meter manufacturing facility is conveniently located near the Mysore expressway, providing easy access to customers in the oil & gas, petrochemical, refining, fertilizer, and power generation industries. "It will also serve as a gateway for customers throughout South Asia, providing a single, regional source for the sales and support of Elliott YR turbines," said Dorsch.

For more than 100 years, Elliott Group has designed, manufactured, and serviced reliable, efficient turbomachinery for a wide variety of industrial applications. Elliott’s global installed base totals more than 70,000 units, and hundreds of Elliott YR steam turbines and other Elliott machines are in service in India today.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2018, Elliott Group announced that it is moving forward with plans to relocate manufacturing and testing of cryogenic pumps and expanders to Jeannette. The pumps and expanders, which are used in gas liquefaction applications, are a new addition to Elliott’s product lines following the acquisition in October 2017 of Ebara International Corporation’s Cryodynamics Division located in Sparks, Nevada.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell will be prosecuted in relation to an explosion at its Moerdijk facility in the Netherlands in June 2014 and for exceeding ethylene oxide emission limits in 2015-2016, Dutch prosecutors said, as per Reuters.

An incident at the Moerdijk plant on June 3 2014 resulted in a series of explosions and a large fire. Shell is also facing separate court hearings over exceeding emissions of ethylene oxide in 2015-2016.

Shell said in a statement it had been informed by the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office that it had nearly concluded its Nigeria investigation and was preparing criminal charges directly or indirectly related to Shell’s 2011 settlement of disputes over the OPL 245 oilfield off the West African nation’s coast.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major already faces charges of bribery alongside its partner in the field, Italy’s Eni, in a trial in Milan over the same deal, in what is considered the oil industry’s biggest-ever corruption trial.

Prosecutors in Italy allege that the two oil companies knew that around USD1.1 billion used for the acquisition of OPL 245 would be used to pay politicians, businessmen and middlemen.

Both oil firms have denied any wrongdoing.
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