W.R. Grace business unit seeks to acquire Synthetech for $19 million

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 14 - W.R. Grace & Co. asked the court to approve its purchase of the ongoing business and assets of Synthetech, Inc. for $19 million in cash, according to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

A hearing is set for Oct. 18.

Grace Conn., an operating unit of W.R. Grace's specialty chemical business, wants to acquire Synthetech to augment its specialty technologies business in the manufacture of single site and polypropylene catalysts for polyolefin plastics production and to expand its offerings to the pharmaceutical markets, the filing said.

Synthetech, a chemicals company specializing in organic synthesis, biocatalysis and chiral technologies, has an ongoing working relationship with Grace-Conn.

Under the terms of the proposed sale, Synthetec's fully diluted shares will be acquired through a merger with a new Grace-Conn. subsidiary, Mallard Acquisition Corp.

The transaction would be expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2010.

Mallard, the surviving entity, would then merge into Grace-Conn.

W.R. Grace, a Columbia, Md.-based specialty chemicals company, filed for bankruptcy on April 2, 2001. Its Chapter 11 case number is 01-01139.

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