On February 7, Air Water announced that it would completely affiliate Kawasaki Kasei Chemicals by acquiring all the remaining shares following the acquisition of 50.1% by TOB in 2015. The term of take-over bid commences on February 8 ending on March 26, and the purchasing price will be 340 per share. So, the investment for the acquisition will amount to about 6.5 billion.

Kawasaki Kasei Chemicals is a manufacturer of chemicals including mainly phthalic anhydride as a raw material of plasticizer, pigment, paint and polyester resin. Kawasaki Kasei has a competitive power in its synthesizing technologies with which it industrialized first in the world naphthoquinone for agrochemicals and incombustible epoxy resins. The sales of FY2017 ending March amounted to 13.884 billion.

According to Air Water, during these years the market price of phthalic anhydride has been rising and there has been quite a satisfactory demand of naphthoquinone for photosensitizers or agrochemical intermediates accordingly. In addition, its versatility is also so high that the need has been increasing since last spring.

With such a situation in the background, Kawasaki Kasei anticipates such a substantial increase of its operating income as 27 times in FY2021 ending March comparing with the FY2017 ending March. The company also plans to install a new facility to experiment functional materials.

Air Water puts in sight for the future growth an integrated formation of its own segment of fine chemicals coupled with the functional chemicals handled by Kawasaki Kasei. To this end, it aims to become the only company of the world to produce naphthoquinone commercially bringing up to the core position as a prospective company expecting high growth.