Kemira is a worldwide chemical group with around 9,405 employees and production in more than 30 countries. Kemira's growth areas are in pulp and paper chemicals, water treatment chemicals, and paints and coatings. Other areas of focus include speciality fertilisers and industrial chemicals including titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments. 
The holding company of the Kemira Group is called Kemira Oyj. It comprises of group management, administration and other service functions.
History
In 2004, Kemira spun off its GrowHow business.
Company movements
In September 2009, Kemira acquired AkzoNobel’s iron coagulant business. Kemira and Akzo Nobel reached an agreement whereby Kemira will take over Akzo Nobel's iron coagulant sales and supply business in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. For more on this story please see Kemira acquires AkzoNobel's Nordic iron coagulant business on ICIS news.
In June 2008, Kemira stated that it will adopt a new strategy focusing on fibre and water treatment. Tikkurila, the coatings arm of the company, will be spun off in 2009 into a public company on the Helsinki Exchange, with Kemira remaining as a major shareholder.
Kemira will reorganise its business into three-customer based segments, effective from the start of October 2008. The Paper segment will focus on the pulp and paper industry, the Water segment serves customers in municipal and industrial water treatment and the Oil and Mining segments will target oil, gas and mining industries where water treatment chemicals are of great importance.
In May 2008, Kemira agreed to enter a 39:61 joint venture with Rockwood Holdings to merge its TIO2 businesses with the latter’s TIO2 and functional additives units. Both parties are currently awaiting approval by the competition authorities. It is expected that the joint venture deal will close in the third quarter of 2008.
In December 2007, Kemira acquired Arkema's French and Spanish coagulant businesses for water treatment. The acquired business includes three production units located in the two countries.
In August 2007, the Finnish government sold a third of Kemira's shares for Euro655.6m to private company Oras Invest.
The Finnish state sold another 15% of its shares to Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance, Suomi Mutual Life Assurance and Sampo Life Insurance.
The Finnish state remained the second biggest shareholder in the company with a 16.5% stake.
In May 2007, Kemira said that it plans to sell its pigments and sodium percarbonate operations in order to focus on its core activities.
Other mergers and acquisitions include:
In September 2006, Kemira agreed to buy the water treatments business of Parcon. The business comprised of four companies - Gropa, Roma, Scantank and SPS.
On 2 October 2006, Kemira completed its $190m acquisition of Cytec's water treating and acrylamide business. Under the agreement, Kemira took immediate ownership of four production plants in the US and UK.
On 3 April 2006, Kemira completed the acquisition of Lanxess's paper chemicals business. The responsible antitrust authorities agreed to the transaction on 1 March 2006 and Kemira took over the business on 1 April 2006.
In 2004, Kemira spun off its GrowHow business. Kemira GrowHow is one of the leading producers of fertiliser and feed phosphates in Europe. It also develops and markets high quality fertilisers and integrated solutions for crop cultivation, animal feed supplements and chemicals required in various industries.
Kemira consists of four business divisions:
Pulp & Paper Chemicals
This division manufactures chemicals needed in pulp cooking and bleaching, as well as the wet end of paper machines, water treatment chemicals and paper fillers and coating pigments. The service package includes application know-how, chemicals and product development in addition to paper machine specific monitoring and dosage systems.
From the Lanxess acquisition its main range of Lanxess' products include: colourants, fluorescent whitening agents and sizing agents and toll-manufactured products traded for the pulp and paper industry. The unit has production plants in Leverkusen, Germany and in Bushy Park, South Carolina, US.
Water
Kemira Water provides products and solutions for the drinking and waste water treatment. The division claims to be Europe's largest manufacturer of coagulants. It serves customers in the municipal drinking and wastewater, industrial wastewater and industrial process water such as the chemical industry.
Specialty
This division includes Kemira Pigments, which produces titanium dioxide pigments for the paint, paper, plastics and printing ink industries, and fine chemicals. It has a 130,000 tonnes/year production plant in Pori, Finland.
Coatings
This is a paint manufacturer in northern, eastern and western Europe. It claims to be the largest supplier of advanced tinting systems in the world and has production facilities in ten countries.
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