Chr. Hansen, a Danish bioscience company, has agreed to sell its natural colors business to the EQT IX Fund for €800 million in an all-cash deal.

The natural colors business provides natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, agricultural, and pharmaceutical sectors.

The sale of the natural colors business completes a strategic review of Chr. Hansen’s portfolio, which was announced in July 2020.

The review was taken by Chr. Hansen with an aim to explore strategic options for the natural colors business as it does not share the fermentation and microbial technology platforms.

Mauricio Graber – CEO of Chr. Hansen said: “The divestment of Natural Colors completes the Review part of our recently launched 2025 Strategy. Chr. Hansen can now focus on fulfilling the ambition of becoming a pure-play, microbial and fermentation company with industry leading, profitable growth. I am convinced EQT will be a great owner of the Natural Colors business which has a leading global position in the industry.

“During the process it has become clear that EQT showed the strongest conviction in the potential of the business, and the highest dedication to the future development of it.”

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is likely to close during the spring of 2021.

Mads Ditlevsen – Partner at EQT Partners said: “We are immensely proud and humble of having been chosen as the future owner of Natural Colors. It is a high-quality and truly global business with a proud legacy of servicing customers all over the world for more than 100 years.

“We are highly impressed by the strong ESG profile, the high-quality organization and talented people we have met during this process, as well as the dedicated focus on food safety. Natural Colors fits very well with EQT’s thematic investment criteria and is operating in two of EQT IX’s five prioritized sub-sectors within Industrial Technology.

“EQT’s ambition is to help the business achieve further growth both organically and through acquisitions.”

Earlier this month, ​Chr. Hansen launched a new natural color product called FruitMax blue for the candy market. The company’s natural colors business also launched a turmeric coloring product for the food industry under the FruitMax brand.

  Chr. Hansen, Denmark, EQT Partners, Mads Ditlevsen, Mauricio Graber