Altana to split Pharma and Chemie

Germany's Altana Group says that it plans to operate its Altana Pharma and Altana Chemie units independently as separately-listed companies. The decision follows the firm's acquisition of Eckart GmbH, an international specialty chemicals group based in Furth, Germany, in a deal valued at around 630.0 million euros ($768.3 million), which Altana says is its largest purchase to date.

When Eckart is integrated into Altana Chemie and listed separately, the unit will have a market capitalization of 1.8-2.0 billion euros, which is higher than that of Lanxess, the chemical business spun-out by Bayer at the beginning of the year (Marketletters passim).

As for Altana Pharma, group chief executive Nikolaus Schweickart has said that further strengthening of the pharmaceuticals division will be achieved through its development of new innovative products, as well as by means of acquisitions, cooperations and alliances. "For that end, an amount of more than 1.0 billion euros is available to the company, partly through the mobilization of non-core business segments," he added.