SWITZERLAND – Flavour and fragrance specialist, Givaudan has secured a deal to acquire Alderys, a French biotechnology company as part of its long-term strategy to expand its capabilities in bio-engineering technologies.

Alderys develops innovative approaches to the biological engineering of valuable compounds from renewable feedstock. The projects developed by Alderys are aimed at the nutrition, chemical as well as cosmetic sectors.

Maurizio Volpi, President of Givaudan’s Fragrance Division said that the acquisition of Alderys will allow the company to expand its portfolio of natural and biosourced products, thanks to their strong research and development bio-engineering platform.

“It will be an additional tool to drive our future development and innovation in the active cosmetic ingredients space and beyond,” Maurizio said adding that “it will also reinforce Givaudan’s capabilities to support its customers in developing sustainable, performant and safe products.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Dominique Thomas, CEO of Alderys added: “We are very proud to join Givaudan and to bring in the bio-engineering platform we have developed with success for ten years.

“We strongly believe this is a great opportunity to expand our scientific expertise to the service of the beauty, fragrance and flavour industry, whilst we will continue to serve our other historical and future partners.”

While terms of the deal have not been disclosed, Givaudansaid that Alderys’ business would have represented 3 million of incremental revenues to Givaudan’s results in 2019 on a proforma basis. Alderys was founded in 2009 by Dominique Thomas in Orsay, France.

Givaudan plans to fund the transaction from existing resources. The planned acquisition is subject to formal approvals from the relevant regulatory authorities and the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020.

In an effort to redefine the company’s portfolio, Givaudan recently announced an agreement to sell its processed and grated cheese business to St. Paul Group. If the divestiture goes through, Givaudan said that it will retain the majority of the legacy Vika BV business and continue to offer cheese powder solutions, vegetable and meat fonds and stocks as part of its natural dairy and savoury product portfolio.

In February this year, the company has acquired of Ungerer & Company, the US based Flavour, Fragrance and Specialty Ingredients company.