DSM Will Acquire Ocean Nutrition

Abstract

Dutch chemical maker DSM will spend about $530 million to acquire Ocean Nutrition Canada, which calls itself the world’s largest supplier of omega-3 fatty acids to the dietary supplement and food manufacturing markets. DSM says the acquisition is the fifth purchase it has made in the nutrition field since September 2010, when it announced a corporate strategy to expand in the health, nutrition, and industrial materials markets. The largest of these deals was last year’s $1.1 billion purchase of Martek Biosciences, a producer of nutritional fatty acids via algal fermentation. Founded in 1997, Ocean Nutrition derives the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from oil obtained mostly from anchovies. DSM expects the firm to have sales this year of $185 million. DSM says the purchase will strengthen its newly created nutritional lipids business by adding fish-oil-derived fatty acids to Martek’s fermentation-derived DHA and arachidonic acid. Although ...