Botanicals + biotech: Givaudan closes Indena deal, announces Alderys buy

Active botanicals – Indena acquisition and innovation partnership​

Givaudan’s acquisition of Indena was initially announced back in November, last year,​ and touted as a move that would strengthen botanical capabilities for Givaudan within its active beauty division. Indena is highly-specialised in plant-based actives – identifying, developing and producing ingredients for personal care, pharmaceutical and health food sectors – and has more than 100 primary patents and thousands of published scientific studies.

Under the deal, which formally closed last Friday May 29, Givaudan and Indena also signed a long-term “manufacturing and innovation partnership”, ​engaging both businesses moving forward.

The long-term agreement had been signed in order “to sustain this acquisition process”, ​the companies said.​

“…Based on the long-term partnership agreement signed by Indena and Givaudan, Indena will continue to manufacture ingredients for Givaudan and to provide innovation capabilities and other supporting services. This partnership will allow both companies to enhance their capabilities and to focus on their respective core competencies; a win-win strategy to the benefit of customers and consumers,”​ Givaudan and Indena said in a joint statement.

While full terms of the acquisition remained undisclosed, Givaudan said Indena’s cosmetics business would have represented around €8m of incremental sales in Givaudan’s 2018 results on a proforma basis.

Active biotech – Alderys acquisition to enrich ‘environmentally-friendly’ offerings​

Alongside the closure of the Indena deal, Givaudan also announced the acquisition of French biotech firm Alderys – a move set to strengthen efforts in “sustainable, disruptive biotechnology processes”. ​Alderys is highly specialised in the biological engineering of valuable compounds from renewable plant resources, notably feedstock.

The acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, was expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

Maurizio Volpi, president of Givaudan’s fragrance division, said the deal aligned with a longer-term strategy for active beauty, and more specifically how biotech could be integrated into fragrance innovation.

“It will allow us to expand our portfolio of natural and bio-sourced products, thanks to [Alderys’] strong research and development bio-engineering platform,”​ Volpi said.

Laurent Bourdeau, head of Givaudan’s active beauty business, said Aldery’s capabilities would enrich Givaudan’s offering.

“Alderys has a strong track record in designing innovative biological pathways to produce environmentally-friendly raw materials, which is essential to the way we develop our cosmetic ingredients,”​ Bourdeau said.

Full terms of the deal remained undisclosed, though Givaudan said Alderys’ business would have represented €3m of incremental sales in Givaudan’s 2019 results on a proforma basis.

Givaudan Active Beauty previously told sister site CosmeticsDesign-Asia that demand for green biotech cosmetic ingredients was on the rise​, driven by consumer demand for eco-friendly natural yet effective ingredients.