DSM acquires global HMO supplier Glycom for $827m

Published: 6-Apr-2020

Royal DSM has agreed to acquires Glycome to accelerate growth in early life nutrition

Royal DSM has completed the acquisition of Glycom, a global supplier of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMO) for an enterprise value of €765 million ($827m).

Glycom is a Danish company with more than 150 employees, founded in 2005, that pioneered the development and commercialisation of HMOs for Early Life Nutrition applications. The company operates a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Esbjerg (Denmark) and says it is the only fully-integrated HMO provider in the world with its own product development, preclinical and clinical development, regulatory and large-scale production with an exciting innovation roadmap for next-generation HMOs.

The company achieved €74 million ($80m) of sales in 2019. These sales were pre-dominantly generated with Nestlé and Nestlé will continue to be an important customer in the future. The Nestlé contract is a mutually beneficial long-term contract with firmly committed volumes also covering the mid-term horizon.

With the acquisition of Glycom, DSM adds HMOs to its portfolio, a novel high-growth ingredient for next-generation Early Life Nutrition solutions.

This acquisition by DSM will be highly synergetic for both companies. DSM can accelerate the growth of Glycom by offering HMO products to DSM's broad global customer base and integrate it in its full solutions offering for Early Life Nutrition customers. DSM can accelerate the HMO product development of Glycom by leveraging its strong R&D platform and clinical competencies to support Glycom's development of next generation HMOs. DSM can furthermore introduce HMOs in other segments outside the Early Life Nutrition market, for instance for toddlers, children and adults, as well as in the medical nutrition and the pet food segments, creating additional growth potential.

Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze Co-CEOs of Royal DSM, said: "This acquisition is an attractive and logical next step for DSM enabling us to provide our customers with innovative Early Life Nutrition solutions in our Human Nutrition business."

Odd Hansen, CEO of Glycom, added: "This not only enables us to accelerate the growth of Glycom by adding our HMO products to DSM's broad global customer base and integrate it in its full solutions offering for Infant Nutrition customers, it also creates leverage with DSM's strong R&D platform and clinical competencies to support development of Glycom's next-generation HMO's."

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