Bloomberg Lanxess AG agreed to buy U.S. competitor Chemtura Corp. for about $2.1 billion in cash, more than doubling the size of its additives business and accelerating a shift towards specialty chemicals. Shareholders of the maker of lubricant additives and flame retardants will get $33.50 a share under the terms of deal, Cologne, Germany-based Lanxess said in a statement …

  Frankfurt / AFP German business confidence soared to its highest level in more than two years in September, the Ifo economic institute said on Monday, recovering from a post-Brexit slump and signalling a rosier outlook for Europe’s largest economy. The closely-watched index unexpectedly jumped to 109.5 points from 106.3 points in August to reach its highest reading since May …

  Bloomberg Traders are growing increasingly pessimistic about Mexico’s ability to stave off a credit-rating downgrade. It costs 0.23 percentage point more to insure Mexico’s bonds against nonpayment than debt from lower-rated Panama, based on trading in credit-default swaps. That’s the most in six years. Mexico is also more costly to protect against default than Peru, which shares the same …