DuPont would move food R&D to Danisco centres post acqusition
DuPont’s bid was Danisco was announced on 10 January and Danisco’s board is recommending shareholders accept the offer of DKK 6 65 per share, with a total transaction value of DKK36.1bn (€4.84bn or $6.57bn at today’s exchange rates).
If the offer is successful, chairman of the board Jørgen Tandrup said an integration process will be undertaken “to devise the optimum operating structure to leverage the complementary capabilities and efficiencies of the combined businesses”.
However the offer documents already give some clear signposts on the integration direction for the food part of the business.
With respect of food ingredients, DuPont “sees the ability to” combine operations relating to nutritional and health offerings, and establish Danisco’s innovations centres in Denmark as the future innovation centres for DuPont’s specialty food ingredients.
It would also look to using Sales and Application development organisation (SAFI) as DuPont’s main route to market for specialty food ingredients.
While Danisco’s enzymes business would be integrated into DuPont’s applied bioscience business, the know-how in the sweeteners, cultures, and enablers divisions would be used to “build strong innovation pipelines and accelerate customer product development efforts”.
It is also clear that DuPont sees particular potential in health and nutrition, saying the “combination will provide the possibility to create new health and wellness offerings and enhance existing offerings in global markets”.
In a conference call on 10 January DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman confirmed that the bidder was interested in the whole of Danisco, not just the bio business division with which it has a long-standing relationship for cellulosic ethanol technology development. Her remarks were made in response to an analyst question about whether parts of Danisco would be divested.
Timescale
The offer is currently expected to close on 22 February – but may be extended if necessary – and is dependent on DuPont acquiring 90 per cent of shares on aggregate and voting rights in the company. Based on this timescale, the deal will close on 2 March.
The offer documents were made public on Friday and Tandrup revealed that Danisco initiated the structured sale process after receiving an unsolicited bid from another company – not DuPont – last year.
Tandrup said: “This sale process took several months and involves a number of potential strategic buyers.” The identity of the other bidders has not been revealed, but some analysts have speculated that DSM and Solvay may have been among the interested parties.
