According to Handelsblatt reported recently, Lanxess, a German chemicals supplier, is in the process of bidding for chemicals giant DSM with Investment firm Advent for its plastics business,

The DSM-related business unit is said to be worth about 3 billion euros, or $3.34 billion.

If the acquisition goes through, it will become part of Lanxess subsidiary HPM, which has been pursuing similar business mergers in recent years and is interested in building the foundation for further acquisitions.

Looking back to 2021, Lanxess has never stopped its acquisition and restructuring.

In August 2021, Lanxess announced the completion of the acquisition of Emerald Kalama Chemical, a SPECIALTY chemicals manufacturer in the United States, which is a world-renowned supplier of preservatives, flavors and fragrances for food, food and cosmetics, as well as products used in animal nutrition.

This acquisition, valued at about $1.04 billion, is lanxess's second largest ever.

It is worth noting that lanxess's largest acquisition in history was the 2017 acquisition of Chemtura, which cost 2.4 billion euros. If it does, the deal would set a new record for the size of an acquisition.

In the same month of the same year, Lanxess announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire THE microbial control business of IFF (American International Flavor and Fragrance Company) for $1.3 billion. The transaction will be completed in the second quarter of this year due to the need to obtain approval from the relevant anti-monopoly authorities.

In April 2021, Lanxess announced the completion of the acquisition of France's Theso Group, a manufacturer of animal health and biosafety solutions. Lanxess said that through the acquisition, Lanxess will greatly expand its product portfolio to suit the growing market of livestock industry, which now includes a wide range of disinfection and hygiene solutions.

In January 2021, Lanxess announced the acquisition of INTACE SAS, a French company, for an undisclosed price. INTACE is a Paris-based supplier of fungicides for the packaging industry. Its products are used to sterilize paper, cardboard, soap packaging, labels and banknotes, INTACE said.

Further forward, there are acquisitions of Chemtura, Chemours disinfection sterilization business and a series of big action. It is not hard to see lanxess making big changes.

From the original "king of rubber", Lanxess has completely transformed itself into a specialty chemicals company by acquiring a number of suppliers of disinfectants and disinfection solutions. And the business that does not accord with specialty product positioning is also being reorganized constantly.

In 2019, Lanxess sold its chromium chemicals business in the leather chemicals segment. Brother Technology, a Chinese leather chemical manufacturer, bought it for 660 million yuan.

The following August, the entire Lanxeses organic leather chemicals business was sold to TFL, a leather chemicals company, for 195 million euros ($223 million).

Also in July 2020, Lanxess, which changed its positioning as a specialty products company, announced a restructuring of its water treatment technology business, selling its ro membrane business to Suez of France.

Matthias Zachert, chairman of lanxess, publicly stated: "The reverse osmosis membrane business is no longer the focus of our special chemicals strategy

If Lanxess is interested in buying DSM plastics, its strategy will become even more obvious: from a single giant in rubber and resin to a "high-speed track" in specialty chemicals, where it can upgrade and compete with the likes of BASF and DuPont across the board.