This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Merck reestructura el sector de Negocio de Química

Merck restructures the business of chemistry sector

23/03/2006

on March 23, 2006

merck kgaa has announced the restructuring of the business of chemistry sector, through the merger of the divisions of pigments and Life Science & Analytics (LSA) in a single division called Performance & Life Science Chemicals. Liquid crystals will remain an independent division within the Sector in the business of chemistry. This change will be effective on April 1, 2006.

"We are reshaping our strategy in the speciality chemicals sector to deal with the changes taking place in this competitive sector and consolidate our activity in this area," said Walter w. Zywottek, Member of the Executive Committee of Merck and head of the chemistry Business Sector from January 1 of this year. "However, the strategy in the long term of the Merck group, based on diversification focused and directed to create a global pharmaceutical and chemical products company, continues to be fully existing."

The basis for clients of the divisions of pigments and LSA of Merck are converging, and these divisions have redundant management structures in many regions of the world, explained Zywottek. The restructuring will enable Merck to offer its customers a wide range of products and services centrally, in a single point of sale, unless this is detrimental to the quality and expertise.