German drug giant Merck announced on Tuesday that it had sold its Nutriblend nutritional supplements business to LycoRed Natural Products Industries, a subsidiary of Israeli agrochemicals maker MA Industries.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The divestiture includes two business lines: the nutritional systems business of formulation, manufacturing and packaging of vitamins and minerals for enriching foods; and the vitamins, minerals and supplements trading business that purchases, distributes and sells individual compounds to the nutrition and food markets.
Nutriblend, which is based in Rochester, UK, has annual sales of between €10 million and €15 million
LycoRed, founded in Israel in 1995, is the world's only manufacturer of LycoMato -a natural tomato lycopene complex. It also owns Biodar, a developer of micro-encapsulated vitamins and minerals.
Merck Life Science Products division head Dr. Bernd Reckmann said, “As Merck's Life Science Products division continues to focus more on products and services for the pharmaceutical industry, nutritional products are no longer a core business."
LycoRed CEO Morris Zelkha said, "The product mix of Nutriblend and its location in the UK make it a perfect fit with our product portfolio and our strategic plans for Europe."
Under the agreement, Merck will continue to manufacture selected premixes for Nutriblend at its Darmstadt facilities, and Merck's subsidiaries in Spain and Poland will continue to distribute products for Nutriblend.
MA Industries shares were up 1% at NIS 10.83 in morning trading on Thursday.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 8 May, 2003