Reed Exhibitions, a division of Relx Group, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mack Brooks Exhibitions. Financial details were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory consents and is expected to close during the first half of 2019.

The German Hennecke Group announced that it has purchased the assets of US equipment, parts and repair supplier Polyurethane Process Industries, LLC (PPI) of Greensburg, PA, USA. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The KraussMaffei Group announced that it has completed its listing on the Shanghai stock exchange on 28/29 December 2018. The listing occurred through the transfer of ChemChina’s stake in KraussMaffei to its majority owned subsidiary THY (Qingdao Tianhua Institute of Chemistry Engineering), which is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange. In addition, THY has taken over ChemChina’s production site in Sanming, China. New injection moulding machines for the Chinese market will be manufactured at this site in the future. Dr. Frank Stieler and Dr. Harald Nippel, CEO and CFO of KraussMaffei, will lead the new integrated mechanical engineering company. The combined business will operate under the brand KraussMaffei. KraussMaffei generates more than 80 % of the approximately EUR 1.5 billion revenue of the total entity.

On 9 January 2019, Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE, and Lin Shaochun, Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, signed a Framework Agreement in Ludwigshafen, Germany, setting out further details of BASF’s plan to establish a new Verbund site in Guangdong, China. Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in July 2018, the company has selected the city of Zhanjiang as the location for its second Verbund site in China.

On 26 December 2018, the joint venture Kuraray GC Advanced Materials Co., Ltd. announced that it will invest in a butadiene derivatives plant at the WHA Eastern Industrial Estate (Map Ta Phut Complex), Rayong Province, Thailand.

TactoTek announced that Faurecia has signed a licensing agreement to design and manufacture IMSE solutions for its automotive customers.

Magna has agreed to acquire Viza Geca SL of Spain, which operates four production facilities and had sales of EUR 125 million in 2017. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter 2019, pending regulatory approval.

Recticel announced that it has entered into final agreements whereby it will first acquire the remaining 49 % in its Proseat automotive moulded seat foam joint venture from its Canadian partner Woodbridge Foam Corporation, and subsequently sell 75 % in Proseat to Japanese public company Sekisui Plastics Co., Ltd.

The European Diisocyanate and Polyol Producers Association Isopa and the European Aliphatic Isocyanates Producers Association Alipa announced that both organisations have officially moved to a new office building in the heart of the European Quarter in Brussels, Belgium.