Croda completes divestment of Performance Technologies unit
Croda International Plc announced the completion of the divestment of the majority of its Performance Technologies and Industrial Chemicals (PTIC) businesses to a wholly owned subsidiary of Cargill Inc., Cargill Velocity Holdings Limited.
Croda announced the sale in December 2021, following a comprehensive strategic review.
The divested business, which represented 77% of PTIC’s 2020 revenue, is comprised of five manufacturing facilities, including the Gouda plant in the Netherlands, the Hull plant in the UK together with additional laboratory facilities supporting key aspects of the divested business’ activities in Smart Materials, Energy Technologies and Industrial Chemicals.
The sale excludes Croda Sipo, a Chinese joint venture in which Croda has a 65% shareholding. Croda continues to discuss with its joint venture partner the acquisition of its stake in Sipo, to enable a subsequent sale by Croda to Cargill of 100% of Sipo for EUR140 million (USD146 million). Thus, the gross proceeds for this sale is only EUR775 million (USD808 million), instead of the earlier announced enterprise value of EUR915 million (USD954 million). The final amount will be subject to small, customary adjustments for cash and debt-like instruments, and working capital.
“This divestment accelerates Croda’s transition to being a pure-play Consumer Care and Life Sciences company. We will redeploy capital and resources to scale our consumer, health and crop care technologies, helping to deliver consistent, superior sales growth and even stronger profit margins,” said Steve Foots, chief executive of Croda.
