DSM Completes ONC Purchase
Feike Sijbesma, CEO and chairman of the DSM managing board, said, "With the completion of this transaction, we have now completed 1.7 billion euros worth of growth-enhancing acquisitions since we embarked on our current strategic plan less than two years ago, including nearly 1.3 billion euros in the nutrition cluster, as we continue to further improve our attractive portfolio in health, nutrition and materials to deliver shareholder value with stronger, more stable growth and profitability. After our successful acquisition of Martek in 2011, the acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada is the logical next step in developing our Nutritional Lipids into a major growth platform for our nutrition cluster."
Leendert Staal, president and CEO of DSM Nutritional Products, commented, "Having completed the acquisition in a timeframe of only two months, we are very pleased to welcome all employees of Ocean Nutrition Canada to DSM today, and I look forward to developing this exciting opportunity together. Our attention is now fully focused on ensuring a smooth integration of the business in a timely and efficient manner. Business continuity and customer satisfaction will remain key priorities for us as we focus on future synergy generation between both businesses."
With the acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada, DSM strengthens and complements its Nutritional Lipids growth platform, which was established after the acquisition of Martek in 2011. DSM can now offer a full range of products in the rapidly growing nutritional lipids category, offering both fish oil-derived omega-3 fatty acids and microbially derived nutritional lipids.
The nutritional lipids category is at an early stage yet well established and is based on strong science, offering significant growth opportunities across a broad range of market segments and applications. Healthy nutritional lipids have been shown in a growing body of scientific evidence to provide significant health benefits and support brain, eye, and cardiovascular health throughout life, yet many consumers do not include enough in their daily diets because dietary sources are limited. In particular, leading experts have noted the important health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, a specific class of nutritional lipids.
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is an omega-3 fatty acid abundant in the brain and retina and important to supporting brain health throughout life. EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) is also an omega-3 fatty acid important for human health. Together, EPA and DHA have been identified as important to supporting cardiovascular health throughout life.
Ocean Nutrition Canada is a provider of fish-derived DHA and EPA omega-3 with its MEG-3 product line. DSM is a provider of microbial DHA from algae with its life'sDHA product line. Also part of the DSM portfolio is life'sARA, a microbially derived nutritional lipid called ARA (arachidonic acid). ARA is an omega-6 fatty acid and the principal omega-6 in the brain. Like DHA, ARA is important for proper brain development in infants.
Given the very different value proposition and pricing of fish oil derived omega-3s compared to microbial derived nutritional lipids, these products do not compete. In fact, Ocean Nutrition Canada's fish-derived omega-3 products should be highly complementary to DSM's existing microbially derived nutritional lipid products, as they address different customer needs and reach different market segments.
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