The private equity fund EQT has acquired Chr. Hansen’s Natural Colors Division for EUR 800m following a prolonged competitive auction process.
The Natural Colors Division is a global market leader in the development and manufacture of natural colouring ingredients for food and beverages. The products are made from all-natural fruit and vegetable concentrates.
The Natural Colors Division is headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark, and employs approx. 650 people serving 1,600 corporate customers around the world. In the 2018/2019 financial year, the Natural Colors Division generated sales of EUR 224m.
Chr. Hansen is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen and is a leading, global bioscience company that develops natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. More than one billion people consume products containing natural ingredients from Chr. Hansen every day.
EQT is one of Northern Europe’s leading private equity funds with more than EUR 62bn in raised capital and approx. EUR 40bn in assets under management across 19 active funds. The EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America with total sales of more than EUR 27bn and approx. 159,000 employees. The acquisition of Chr. Hansen’s Natural Colors Division is one of the first investments made in EQT Fund IX which has a capital commitment of close to EUR 15bn.
Accura was lead legal counsel on all legal aspects of the transaction, including structuring, due diligence, carve-out and separation, competition and merger investigations, financing and negotiation of the transaction agreement.