Brian Blum
October 31, 2017

Israeli flavor firm Frutarom announced that it has agreed to acquire the remaining shares of Israeli ingredients and food company Enzymotec. In August, Frutarom purchased 19 percent of Enzymotec’s shares for $42 million. It is paying about $168 million for the rest. Enzymotec will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Frutarom and will be delisted from trading on NASDAQ.

Frutarom is one of the largest companies in the world in the field of flavors and specialty fine ingredients, employing approximately 5,000 people. It develops, produces and markets some 60,000 flavor compounds, natural flavor extracts and colorings and algae-based products to some tens of thousands of customers in the food and beverages, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Enzymotec is its ninth acquisition in 2017, and it’s 28th in the last three years.

Enzymotec is a specialty chemicals company that creates dietary supplements and medical food products from the lipids contained in fish and plants. One of the company’s key products is the infant formula InFat, which mimics the composition, structure and nutritional value of the fat found in human breastmilk. It is sold through a joint venture between Enzymotec and Swedish manufacturer AAK.

Frutarom has no significant activity in the infant formula area, which was one of the reasons Frutarom was interested in acquiring Enzymotec.

Enzymotec subsidiary VAYA Pharma develops medical foods for the management of a number of medical conditions and diseases including ADHD for children and early memory impairment.

Enzymoetic has 235 employees, mainly in Midgal HaEmek and the United States, and had sales in the last 12 months of $36.5 million.

“In the wake of the accelerated internal growth and the contribution of acquisitions made until now, Frutarom’s rate of annual sales already approaches $1.5 billion,” said Frutarom Group CEO Ori Yehudai. “We are working at identifying and executing further strategic acquisitions of companies and activities within the range of our operations.”

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