Bayer, Busing and Fach form polyurethane JV

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (April 1)—Bayer A.G. has teamed up with chemicals and materials supplier Busing and Fach GmbH & Co. of Oldenberg, Germany, for a 50-50 polyurethane systems joint venture. Regulatory approval for the new venture, to be called BufaPUR, is expected soon, although the deal was signed Jan. 1, according to Wilhelm Lamberts, the Bayer executive who will be joint managing director of the operation along with Bufa's Dirk Buschmann. This deal extends Bayer's strategy of developing European partnerships in systems houses, which started in the mid-1990s with Deltapur in Italy, followed by Tectrade in Denmark and Betapur in Spain, Lamberts said at UTECH Europe, held March 25-27 in the Hague. BufaPUR's major market focus will be north European polyurethanes processors, especially in footwear, where Bufa claims to have, "decades of experience in developing custom polyurethane systems," using Bayer raw materials.