Belgium’s UCB says is has closed the 1.4 billion euro sale of its surface specialities business to Cytec Industries – also signaling the completion of the Belgian company’s transformation into a biopharmaceutical company.
Completion of the deal, which was first announced in [[04/10/04f]], brings UCB some 1.2 billion euros in cash, and 225 million euros worth of Cytec shares – equivalent to around 12% of the US company.
UCB’s plan to divest all of its non-pharmaceutical activities began in earnest last spring when the firm agreed to buy UK biotechnology company, Celltech, in a £1.5 billion-pound deal [[18/05/04a]].
