Lonza Group - History

History

In 1897, Lonza Electricity Works has been founded in Gampel, in the canton of Valais. Lonza is named after the river, which origins in the Lötschental. The produced electricity was used to manufacture calcium carbide and acetylene. In 1909, Lonza moved to Visp where initially synthetic fertilizers had been manufactured. In 1920, the production of ketene and diketene started - an area where Lonza is still active today. In 1950, the Niacin business (vitamin B3) was started. A proprietary Naphta cracker – which is one of the smallest cracker in the world due to the amount of 30’0000 tons of acetylene per year - was launched in Visp in 1965. In 1969, the company expanded to the US market. In 1974, Lonza was merged with Alusuisse and served as the subsidiary Chemistry division of the Alusuisse group. With the transformation of Alusuisse into a holding, Alusuisse-Lonza Holding Ltd was established in May 1990. In 1992, the production site in Kouřim, Czech Republic, was acquired, in 1997, the company expanded to China. The visible repositioning of the group started in April 1998 with the renaming into Alusuisse Lonza Group Ltd (Algroup). On August 11, 1999 the Board of Directors announced the intention to outsource the Lonza division Chemistry and Energy again, to realize a three-way merger of Algroup with Alcan and Péchiney, where only the divisions Aluminium and Packaging shall be integrated. On October 18, 1999, the proposed outsourcing was approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting and on November 1, Lonza Group Ltd (headquartered in Zurich) which just became independent, was listed at the Stock Exchange. The former parent company Alusuisse Lonza Group Ltd, deleted the former reference “Lonza” out of its name in June 2000 only. In April 2002, the registered office of Lonza Group was transferred from Zurich to the operative headquarter in Basel. In 2006, Lonza listed the „Polymer Intermediates“ division at the Milan stock exchange, which is ever since operated under the name “Polynt SpA” headquartered in Italy. Lonza Group does not hold any minority stakes of Polynt anymore. Parts of the revenue from this flotation were used for the acquisition of the biotechnology division of the US biotechnology company Cambrex (460 mn US Dollar). This division was integrated into Lonza Biopharmaceutica, resp. integrated as the new sector “Bioscience” into the group’s business. In 2011, Lonza did its largest acquisition ever, acquiring the US American biocide producer Arch Chemicals for 1.6 bn CHF. Since October 2011, Lonza is also listed at the main board of the Singapore stock exchange and is the first company listed at the Swiss Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing in Singapore.