Bio-on, listed on the AIM segment of Borsa Italiana and one of the main players in the new eco-sustainable chemical industry, starting from 1st December is listed on the MSCI World Small Cap Index. This announcement arrives after the agreement between the Italian company headquartered in Bologna and International Paint Ltd (AkzoNobel) to continue their collaborative relationship thanks to excellent results achieved within Synergistic Fouling Control Technologies-SEAFRONT project, funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission
The MSCI World Small Cap Index, created by Morgan Stanley Capital International, represents 4,263 companies from 23 developed countries. The companies within the index are 55.44% from the USA, followed by 12.32% from Japan and 7.42% from the United Kingdom.
The most-represented sector on the index with 18.22% is industrial, followed by Information Technology (14.49%) and the financial sector (13.6%). In recent years, the MSCI World Small Cap Index has offered investors an annualized return of 10.8% in a three-year time frame, 13.81% in a five-year time frame and 6.73% in a ten-year time frame.
The aim of the collaboration with AkzoNobel is to continue to investigate the use of Bio-on’s biodegradable and bio-based polymers as components in fouling control coatings designed to prevent the undesirable accumulation of marine organisms on boats, ships, tidal power plants and other aquatic installations.
“This collaboration is strategically attractive to AkzoNobel as it offers the potential to develop new biobased products which will strengthen our position as world leaders in high performance and sustainable coatings”, says David Williams, R&D Director, Marine Coatings, AkzoNobel.
“We are particularly proud and happy with the decision to continue working with AkzoNobel for two main reasons,” says Marco Astorri, Bio-on’s CEO and Chairman. First of all because we will continue to work with some of the best researchers in the chemical industry and secondly because we will be able to demonstrate further the amazing application possibilities of our biopolymers.”
“These results and continued cooperation are good examples of the many valuable outcomes of the SEAFRONT Project, which started in 2014 and will end this year,” says Arie Brouwer of the Dutch Polymer Institute and coordinator of the SEAFRONT Project. “In SEAFRONT a consortium of 19 companies and knowledge institutes are working together in a unique way on anti-fouling solutions for marine applications. The consortium can be proud that they have successfully achieved the main objectives such as creating surfaces which reduce hydrodynamic drag by 5% and, thanks to the excellent work of Bio-on and AkzoNobel, generated very good results for new fouling control coatings utilising bio-based polymers.”
IL BIOECONOMISTA 