United Phosphorus has agreed to buy Arkema’s Shareholding in Cerexagri Group of Companies
United Phosphorus Ltd has announced that the Company has agreed to buy Arkema’s shareholding in Cerexagri (CEREXAGRI) Group of companies subject to the prior information and consultation process of Arkema and Cerexagri Works Council and anti-trust approvals in certain countries. The size of the acquisition is expected to be EUR 111 million subject to closing adjustments.
CEREXAGRI is the crop-science business unit of Arkema with annual revenues of about EUR 200 million. Cerexagri specializes in plant protection products, mainly fungicides (which account for about 75% of the sales) and post-harvest treatment products for fruits and vegetables where it is market leader. CEREXAGRI has over 70 years of experience in the global market. CEREXAGRI has a strong distribution presence in Europe and US which together accounts for about 80% of the annual sales revenues. CEREXAGRI has manufacturing sites mainly in Europe and employs about 630 personnel overall.
The Company believes that its strong product offering of insecticides, herbicides and furnigants fits very well with the complementary range in fungicides of CEREXAGRI. Moreover the selling platform provided by the broad and deep distribution capabilities of CEREXAGRI would create a truly global and competitive combined entity. This positioning would be further enhanced by the Company’s strong manufacturing and R&D capabilities based in India.
This would be the Company’s fifth acquisition in this calendar year following the acquisitions of Advanta BV, Crop Serve, products from Bayer Cropscience and Bensulfuron from Dupont. This acquisition, when completed, would make the Company the 3rd largest generic agrochemical company in the world.
The Company’s Group sales revenues for the year ended March 31, 2006 were about USD 410 million.
In this transaction the Company is being represented by YES Bank Ltd and Close Brothers.
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