Funds advised by Motion Equity Partners, an independent mid-market European private equity firm, announced today that it has sold Diana Group, the global natural ingredients supplier for the pet food and food & beverage industries, to the listed group Symrise, a global supplier of fragrances, flavorings, cosmetic active ingredients and raw materials as well as functional ingredients.
Diana, headquartered in Vannes (France) is the world leader in natural functional solutions for the food, pet food, nutraceuticals, aquaculture and cosmetics industries, and technology leader in plant cell culture, dedicated to the production of active ingredients for food, cosmetics and health. The Group is organized in three independant divisions :
- Diana Pet Food is the leading worldwide producer of palatability enhancers for the pet food industry
- The Food division develops organoleptic and nutritional features to enhance the benefit of its customers from the food industry
- Diana Nova is composed of new activities with high growth potential, such as aquaculture and plant cell culture
With 32 production sites across 23 countries in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Middle-East and Australia, Diana employs more than 2,000 people worldwide and has posted continuous highly profitable growth for 15 years.
During the investment period, the strategy implemented by Motion Equity Partners has been to pursue Diana’s internationalization to :
- Increase the firm’s exposure to fast-developing countries
- Further secure the sourcing of raw materials, an essential component of the Group’s success
- Enter or reinforce existing positions on new promising markets such as aquaculture and plant cells culture
- Follow its blue chip customers in new markets
- Re-balance the Food division vs. the Pet Food division
This expansion strategy materialized in both greenfield developments, with the creation of new production sites in the US, Canada, Latin America, Russia, South Africa and Thailand, and external growth with no less than 6 successful acquisitions since our initial investment, including Confoco in Ecuador and Pacific Pure Aid in the US.
Olivier Caix, President and CEO at Diana, said : “The understanding of our industry and the expertise of Motion Equity Partners’ team in achieving external growth has been an important element in the development of our company. We are now ideally positioned, particularly to take advantage of emerging market opportunities”.
Patrick Eisenchteter, Managing Partner at Motion Equity Partners, said : “Since our initial investment in Diana about 10 years ago, the Group has considerably changed its scope to become the world leader on its markets. We are extremely proud of having successfully supported Diana’s Management team in the international development of the firm and we are convinced that Symrise is an ideal partner which will allow Diana to enter with great serenity its next development stage”.
About Symrise
Symrise is a global supplier of fragrances, flavorings, cosmetic active ingredients and raw materials as well as functional ingredients. With a market share of 11 % (2013), Symrise is the world’s fourth largest supplier in the F&F market. The Group counts c. 6,000 employees and generated c. € 1.8 billion in revenue in 2013.
