Europe

Germany-based BASF will buy Cognis from its owners—the US investment bank Goldman Sachs and the UK private equity group Permira—at an equity purchasing price of €700 million.

BASF said that it expects the household products additives maker to help it weather economic turbulence. BASF's core chemicals and plastics business currently relies on industries such as automotive and construction, both of which have been hit hard by the global economic crisis.

Lapland might be more commonly associated with Santa Claus than mining for gold, but this is where one of the largest gold deposits in northern Europe is to be found. Known reserves at the Kittilä Mine already contain more than four million ounces and there is a strong probability that much more will yet be found in a series of deposits running along a 25 kilometre trend. The mine is located approximately 900 kilometres north of Helsinki and 150 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

Inspectorate ranks among the global leaders in commodities testing and inspection, a market which covers a wide range of inspection and laboratory testing services for oil and petrochemical products, metals and minerals, and agricultural products.

Founded in 1885 and headquartered in Witham, UK, the company operates from 150 laboratories in 60 countries, employing over 7,000 people.

A memorandum of understanding for the Interconnection Turkey-Greece-Italy project, or ITGI, was signed yesterday in Ankara between Edison, Turkey’s state- run natural gas company Botas and Greek natural gas company Depa.

The ITGI project aims to transport an annual eight billion cubic metres of gas to Italy by upgrading existing infrastructure in Turkey and Greece and building a final link to Italy.

National Starch, a subsidiary of the former UK group ICI, was taken over by Netherlands-based AkzoNobel as part of its acquisition of ICI in January 2008, but isn't considered part of AkzoNobel's core business. AkzoNobel is the largest coatings and specialty chemicals company in the world.
In 2009 National Starch had revenue of $1.2 billion from sales of specialty starches to local and multinational customers in the food, papermaking, consumer and industrial markets. With 2,250 employees around the world, it operates 11 plants in eight countries.

Mineral exploration and development company Lydian International is focusing all its resources on its Amulsar gold project in Southern Armenia. CEO Dr Tim Coughlin explains why to Jayne Flannery.

E.ON UK has successfully seen its Robin Rigg wind farm through design and construction to final operation. Senior project manager Ian Johnson talks to Andrew Pelis about some of the many challenges and rewards involved in the project.

The wind farm revolution is well and truly gathering pace in the UK, but for E.ON Climate & Renewables UK, the Robin Rigg project has been anything but a breeze.

For this Italian yacht fitter, the reward for its consistent focus on reliable quality is a client base spanning the globe. Andrew Pelis talks to Gianluca Tempesta to find out more.