South Korea’s biggest chemical company, LG Chem Ltd announced on March 14, 2014 that it has made a decision to purchase an American water filter company for $200 million. One of corporate sources said that the company’s board approved the latest purchase of NanoH2O Inc., which is based in California and helps in controlling the cutting-edge reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology.
An insider from the company said, “The process of buying the company will start immediately”. The official refused to be identified, but said that LG Chem will own the venture tech company entirely. The California-based company manufactures, as well as markets RO membranes that decrease desalination cost.
The South Korean company said that after it acquires NanoH2O, it can increase its capabilities and will be more informed in the chemical material design field, as well as industrial coating technology areas. LG Chem Ltd also stated that the RO membrane market is expected to grow an average 23 percent on a yearly basis in the upcoming years and will become a $2.4 billion industry by 2018.
Currently, an industrial partnership between NanoH2O, Nitto Denko-Toray Industries of Japan and Dow Chemical Co. controls 80 percent of the RO membrane market in the world.
Photo Credits: Live Mint
