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Givaudan to acquire French biotechnology firm Alderys

| By Mary Bailey

As part of its long-term strategy to expand its capabilities in bio-engineering technologies, Givaudan (Vernier, Switzerland) announced that it plans to acquire Alderys, a biotechnology company headquartered in Orsay, France. Alderys develops innovative approaches to the biological engineering of valuable compounds from renewable feedstock. The projects developed by Alderys are aimed at the chemical and cosmetic industry sectors, as well as nutrition. They are recognized for offering innovative technological industrial solutions with high sustainability standards.

Maurizio Volpi, President of Givaudan’s Fragrance Division said: “The acquisition of Alderys aligns with our long term strategy for Active Beauty and more specifically, their expertise in biotechnology is fully complementary to our Fragrance and Active Beauty businesses. It will allow us to expand our 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. It will also reinforce Givaudan’s capabilities to support our customers in developing sustainable, performant and safe products.”

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.”

Laurent Bourdeau, Head of Givaudan’s Active Beauty Business said: “Alderys has a strong track record in designing innovative biological pathways to produce environmentally-friendly raw materials, which is essential to the way we develop our cosmetic ingredients. With specific scientific programs dedicated to Active Beauty, we are very excited by the capabilities of Alderys to support us in enriching our offer to our customers.”

While terms of the deal have not been disclosed, Alderys’ business would have represented €3 million of incremental revenues to Givaudan’s results in 2019 on a proforma basis. Givaudan plans to fund the transaction from existing resources. The planned acquisition remains subject to formal approvals from the relevant regulatory authorities and the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020.