Stepan To Acquire Surfactant Business, Associated Assets Of PerformanX

Stepan Company (SCL) has entered into an agreement to acquire the surfactant business and associated assets of PerformanX Specialty Chemicals, LLC. The deal will include intellectual property, commercial relationships, and inventory.

Scott Behrens, CEO, said: “The acquisition of PerformanX’s business should increase annual revenue by approximately $20 million and be accretive to Stepan’s EBITDA margin. We look forward to welcoming PerformanX’s customers to Stepan by continuing to provide the same high level of quality and service to which they have been accustomed.”

US Covid Hospitalizations Fall By 10% In A Fortnight

As U.S. Covid hospitalizations continue to fall, the number of people admitted with the viral disease in the country’s hospitals has decreased by 10 percent in the last two weeks, according to New York Times’ latest tally.

Also, a 10 percent fall is reported in the number of patients admitted in intensive care units in the same period.

U.S. Covid hospitalizations fell to 30,587, as per the latest CDC update. 4,316 of these patients are admitted in intensive care units.

Covid positive cases fell by 8 percent in the last fortnight while Covid casualties increased by 7 percent.

The total number of people losing their lives due to coronavirus infection in the country has risen to 1,047,518, as per Johns Hopkins University’s latest data.

6111 new infections on Sunday took the total U.S. Covid cases to 94,753,897.

The nation’s current test positivity rate is 14 percent.

1052 additional deaths were reported globally on Sunday, taking the total number of people who lost their lives due to the pandemic so far to 6,495,703.

92,494,183 people have so far recovered from the disease, the Worldometer tally shows.

Clarivate To Sell MarkMonitor For $302 Mln Cash

Clarivate Plc (CLVT), an analytics company, said on Monday that it has inked a deal with Newfold Digital, a web and commerce technology provider, to sell its subsidiary MarkMonitor, a domain management solutions provider, for around $302.5 million, with an expected closure of the transaction in late 2022.

For the fiscal 2022, MarkMonitor expects to post EBITDA of $35 million, on sales of around $80 million.

The acquisition of Clearlake Capital Group, L.P., and Siris Capital Group, LLC backed MarkMonitor will underscore Newfold Digital’s to provide web presence solutions to customers across the world.

The acquisition is a natural extension of Newfold’s portfolio of web technology brands, which includes Network Solutions, the world’s first registrar, Web.com, Bluehost, Register.com, and Domain.com.

China Consumer Price Inflation Unexpectedly Eases

China’s consumer price inflation unexpectedly slowed in August and factory gate inflation hit an 18-month low, providing space for the central bank to ease its monetary policy to support the struggling economy.

Consumer price inflation eased to 2.5 percent in August from 2.7 percent in July, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday. The rate was forecast to rise slightly to 2.8 percent.

Core inflation that excludes food and energy prices, held steady at 0.8 percent in August.

Food price inflation came in at 6.1 percent in August, down from 6.3 percent in July. The annual price growth was largely driven by the 22.4 percent increase in pork prices.

In a separate communiqué, the NBS said producer price inflation slowed notably to 2.3 percent in August from 4.2 percent in July. The rate was also below economists’ forecast of 3.1 percent.

Factory gate inflation is set to fall further throughout the rest of the year thanks to a continued drop back in commodity prices and a higher base for comparison, economists at Capital Economics, said.

Also, the economists expect consumer price inflation to remain below the central bank’s 3 percent ceiling.

As such, the People’s Bank of China will not be constrained to ease policy further to support economy, economists noted. After lowering policy rates in August, the bank is likely to cut policy rates during the rest of the year.

AmerisourceBergen To Buy Germany’s PharmaLex Holding For EUR 1.28 Bln In Cash

AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC) announced Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Germany’s PharmaLex Holding GmbH, a leading provider of specialized services for the life sciences industry, from funds advised by AUCTUS Capital Partners AG for 1.28 billion euros in cash, subject to certain customary adjustments.

The transaction will advance AmerisourceBergen’s role as partner of choice for biopharmaceutical manufacturers by enhancing AmerisourceBergen’s global portfolio of solutions to support manufacturer partners across the pharmaceutical development and commercialization journey.

PharmaLex is a global team of scientific, regulatory, and safety and compliance (GxP) experts that provide strategic guidance and regulatory support to biopharma companies throughout a product’s lifecycle.

The transaction is expected to close by March 2023 and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals.

Upon closing, the acquisition of PharmaLex is expected to be approximately $0.15 accretive to AmerisourceBergen’s adjusted earnings per share for the last seven months of its fiscal year 2023, which would contribute to AmerisourceBergen’s previously disclosed fiscal year 2023 growth target from capital deployment.

Heska To Buy LightDeck For Purchase Price Of $38.7 Mln – Quick Facts

Heska Corp. (HSKA) has agreed to acquire 100% of the share capital of MBio Diagnostics, Inc. d/b/a LightDeck Diagnostics. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, LightDeck has developed a scalable platform for rapid and accurate point of care diagnostics.

Kevin Wilson, Heska’s CEO and President, said: “LightDeck was central in developing Heska’s leading immunodiagnostic platform, Element i+, including its current menu of Total T4, cTSH, Cortisol, and Progesterone. We expect to drive gross margin improvement with new manufacturing capabilities and scaling across the business.”