The deal, which was announced on Dec. 23, 2024, includes a health ingredients portfolio that offers plant sterols esters, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 oils for human nutrition, as well as food performance ingredients such as aeration and whipping agents, food emulsifiers and fat powder grades.
Financial terms have not been disclosed, but the deal will also include three of BASF’s application labs outside of Germany, according to press releases.
“This agreement is an opportunity to accelerate LDC’s participation in the rapidly growing plant-based ingredients market,” said Michael Gelchie, CEO of Louis Dreyfus Company.
“We are excited about the prospect of this transaction, as LDC’s first investment in dedicated facilities to produce food and health performance ingredients at scale.”
BASF
The German multinational made a series of high-profile acquisitions in the human nutrition space starting in 2010 with a €3 billion deal for Cognis. This was followed by deals for Scottish omega-3 concentrate company Equatec in 2012 and Norwegian omega-3 player Pronovo in 2013.
However, the company has now deemed that the food and nutritional ingredients business has “limited synergies and integration into BASF and is no longer a strategic focus area.”
“The divestment of this business to LDC supports our strategic portfolio optimization and will allow us to focus on our core businesses in Nutrition & Health,” said Michael Heinz, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE and responsible for the Nutrition & Health division. “We remain committed to leveraging our core product platforms and expanding our business in key areas such as vitamins, carotenoids and feed enzymes.”
As part of the agreement, approximately 300 employees are expected to transfer from BASF to LDC as of the closing of the transaction. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from relevant regulatory bodies.
James Zhou, chief commercial officer at LDC and head of Food & Feed Solutions, added that BASF’s Food and Health Performance ingredients business is highly complementary to LDC’s existing Food & Feed Solutions Platform portfolio.
“With the integration of these activities, we see strong potential to accelerate LDC’s evolution from reliable raw material provider to trusted solutions advisor as well, partnering with our global customers to develop attractive applications for bakery & confectionary, non-dairy, instant foods, personal care and healthcare.”