Specialty chemicals manufacturer Altana (Wesel / Germany; www.altana.com) has signed an agreement to acquire additive producer Kometra Kunststoff-Modifikatoren und -Additiv (Schkopau / Germany; www.kometra.de). The price of the transaction was not disclosed. The business is to be integrated into Altana’s BYK Additives & Instruments division, which in 2009 had absorbed DyStar’s (Frankfurt / Germany; www.dystar.com) additive business – see Plasteurope.com of 08.04.2009. So far, Kometra’s special polymer modifiers had been sold only in Germany; Altana now wants to market them globally.

Kometra produces surface-active copolymers, which are used as impact modifiers and adhesion promotors in numerous applications, including the automotive industry. Whereas Kometra CEO Thomas Heß left the company on 12 January, the remaining 20 employees will transfer to Altana.