FDBusiness.com

Royal DSM, the global life sciences and materials sciences company, has completed the C$540 million (Eur435 million) acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada, the leading global provider of fish-oil derived nutritional products to the dietary supplement and food and beverage markets. The acquisition strengthens and complements DSM’s global Nutritional Lipids growth platform, which was established after the acquisition of Martek in 2011. DSM can now uniquely offer a full range of products in the rapidly growing nutritional lipids category, offering both fish oil derived omega-3 fatty acids and microbially derived nutritional lipids.

Feike Sijbesma, chief executive and chairman of the DSM, says: “With the completion of this transaction we have now completed Eur1.7 billion worth of growth enhancing acquisitions since we embarked on our current strategic plan less than two years ago, including nearly Eur1.3 billion in the Nutrition cluster, as we continue to further improve our attractive portfolio in health, nutrition and materials to deliver shareholder value with stronger, more stable growth and profitability. After our successful acquisition of Martek in 2011, the acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada is the logical next step in developing our Nutritional Lipids into a major growth platform for our Nutrition cluster.”

The nutritional lipids category is at an early stage yet well established and is based on strong science, offering significant growth opportunities across a broad range of market segments and applications. Healthy nutritional lipids have been shown in a growing body of scientific evidence to provide significant health benefits and support brain, eye, and cardiovascular health throughout life, yet many consumers do not include enough in their daily diets because dietary sources are limited. In particular, leading experts have noted the important health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, a specific class of nutritional lipids.

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), is an omega-3 fatty acid abundant in the brain and retina and important to supporting brain health throughout life. EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) is also an omega-3 fatty acid important for human health. Together, EPA and DHA have been identified as important to supporting cardiovascular health throughout life.

Ocean Nutrition Canada is the leading provider of fish-derived DHA and EPA omega-3 with its MEG-3® product line. DSM is the leading provider of microbial DHA from algae with its life’sDHA™ product line. Also part of the DSM portfolio is life’sARA™, a microbially derived nutritional lipid called ARA (arachidonic acid). ARA is an omega-6 fatty acid and the principal omega-6 in the brain. Like DHA, ARA is important for proper brain development in infants.

Given the very different value proposition and pricing of fish oil derived omega-3s compared to microbial derived nutritional lipids, these products do not compete. In fact, Ocean Nutrition Canada’s fish derived omega-3 products are highly complementary to DSM’s existing microbially derived nutritional lipid products as they address different customer needs and reach different market segments.

The acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada is the fifth acquisition in the Nutrition cluster since DSM in September 2010 announced its corporate strategy DSM in motion: driving focused growth.