Taste and nutrition giant Kerry Group will today complete its public tender offer for Spanish business Biosearch Life.
Kerry is paying €126.9m for the company.
Biosearch is focused on providing innovative solutions for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical – that is products that come from food that have health benefits – and functional food sectors, according to a statement from Kerry Group. It has an extensive range of probiotics.
The Edmund Scanlon-headed company taking over Biosearch through its Spanish subsidiary, Kerry Iberia Taste & Nutrition.
Following expiry of the acceptance period on June 29, around 90.3pc of the share capital of Biosearch was tendered into the offer.
The result of the offer was approved by the Spanish National Securities Markets Commission on Monday and the acquisition of these shares will be completed today.
Subject to all necessary conditions being met, Kerry will compulsorily acquire all the remaining shares of Biosearch which have not been tendered.
The compensation paid will be equal to the price of the tender offer, that is €2.20 per share.
Edmond Scanlon, CEO of Kerry, said: “We have significantly advanced our capabilities in proactive nutrition in recent years.”
“Biosearch is a strong complement to our portfolio and brings leading clinical research capabilities and functional food technologies across multiple life stages and need states.”
Based in Granada, Spain, Biosearch employs over 150 people. It distributes its products across Europe, Asia and the United States and had revenue of €25.3m last year.
Last month Kerry agreed to buy preservative maker Niacet for €853m to bolster its food protection offering, almost the same price it’s getting for selling Galtee and other well-known consumer brands.
Despite the similar price tag, the deal will substantially improve the food group’s margin profile, in what is a major step forward in CEO Edmond Scanlon’s ambition to turn Kerry into a higher profit ingredients company.
Kerry, which employs over 1,000 food scientists, says it is aiming to reach over two billion customers with “sustainable nutrition solutions” by 2030.