The Riverside Co. has invested in HealthTech BioActives S.L., a Spanish manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients, flavorings and sweeteners for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries, as well as ingredients for human and animal feed with a total sales of $56.9 million in 2018. The company’s products, derived from citrus and vitamin B-12 derivatives, sell in more than 90 countries worldwide. HTBA is a carve-out of Ferrer, a well-known international pharmaceutical company headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.
The deal includes the 140 employees of HTBA, including the commercial team, the manufacturing plant located in Beniel (Murcia) dedicated to bioflavonoids and natural flavors for more than 41 years, the Sant Quirze plant (Barcelona) dedicated to animal nutrition and the workshop dedicated to Vitamin B-12 derivatives located in the Sant Cugat (Barcelona).
“We are looking forward to working with the already successful HTBA team,” Riverside Partner Rafael Alvarez-Novoa said in a statement. “Some of our priorities when working with HTBA will be to focus on strengthening the commercial team and implement a sales excellence program to boost revenues, pursue new customers and accelerate new product development.”
Riverside is attracted to the global market for these unique ingredients-based companies because of positive growth trends in nutraceuticals and food ingredients, particularly among mid-sized and smaller companies, boosted by changing consumer preferences towards more natural and healthier food. Earlier this year, Riverside launched its own Flavor & Specialty Ingredient Industry Advisory Board comprised of specialty ingredient experts. This investment comes on the heels of Riverside’s successful recent divesture of Euromed, a Spanish-based company engaged in the production of standardized botanical extracts and natural active substances for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industries.
Working with Alvarez-Novoa and Damien Gaudin on the deal for Riverside were Senior Associate Michele Volpe and Associate Laura Palacio Aragon.
KPMG served as carve-out and financial adviser, Garrigues and Advocatenkantoor Parmentier provided legal and tax counsel, A&O acted as a legal adviser for the financing process, Dextra Corporate acted as exclusive buy-side M&A adviser, PWC as ESG and buy-side debt adviser, Roland Berger as commercial adviser and financing was provided by LGT Private Debt on the deal for Riverside.
Deloitte served as financial, legal, tax and exclusive sell-side M&A adviser on the deal for Ferrer.
