IEIL TO ACQUIRE ARYSTA LIFESCIENCE CORPORATION
Tokyo 22 Oct. 2007 ― Industrial Equity Investments Limited
(“IEIL”), an international investment company located in the Republic
of Ireland, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to
acquire Arysta LifeScience Corporation, from funds advised by Olympus
Capital Holdings Asia and its co-investors. The acquisition is IEIL’s
first investment in Japan since it was established in 2005. The Permira
Funds own the Irish company. The enterprise value is approximately JPY
250bn (US$2.2bn). Completion of the transaction, which is subject to
regulatory review and approvals, is anticipated to occur in first
quarter 2008.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Arysta LifeScience is the world’s tenth
largest agrochemical company. The company markets a portfolio of over
150 products in more than 125 countries with approximately 2,200
employees. Since its founding in 2001, Arysta LifeScience has built a
reputation as one of the most agile, high-performance companies in the
global agrochemical industry.
Margaret O’Connor, chairperson of IEIL, commented, “We are delighted
to be acquiring a truly global business headquartered in Japan and look
forward to supporting the management in their growth going forward.”
Chris Richards, CEO of Arysta LifeScience said, “Our continued
success comes from a culture that is relentlessly focused on delivering
innovative crop protection solutions that help our customers become
more successful. Based on our strong product range and global reach,
our employees have driven aggressive global growth through product
development and strategic acquisition. Olympus Capital has provided
consistent support for our growth over the last five years. We are now
excited to look to the future with IEIL, who shares our vision and
ambition to further accelerate our growth plans over the coming years.”
Olympus Capital, an independent firm that has been in the Asian
private equity business for more than 10 years, has entered into more
than 10 strategic partnerships throughout the region. The firm
completed an initial investment in Arysta LifeScience in 2002,
partnering with then existing owners Tomen Corporation (now owned by
Toyota Tsusho) and Nichimen Corporation (now part of Sojitz
Corporation), who subsequently sold their stakes to the Olympus Group.
During this period, Olympus Capital helped Arysta LifeScience to
acquire more than JPY50bn (US$450 million) of companies and products
around the world.
The Permira Funds provided all the equity for the IEIL’s first
acquisition in Japan. This investment demonstrates Permira’s ability to
identify strong investment opportunities in the region following its
recent investment in Galaxy Entertainment Group of Hong Kong.
Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
acted as advisers to Arysta LifeScience and the sellers. JP Morgan,
Clifford Chance, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Permira Ireland Limited
acted as advisers to IEIL.
About Arysta LifeScience Corporation
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Arysta LifeScience is the world’s
largest privately held crop protection and life science company with
2006 revenues of JPY124.1 billion (US$1 billion). An entrepreneurial
provider of crop protection and life science products in more than 125
countries worldwide, Arysta LifeScience specializes in marketing and
distribution of respected crop protection brands and life science
products in harmony with the needs of global partners. More information
on the company is available at: www.arystalifescience.com.
About IEIL
Established in 2005, IEIL is a private investment company located in the Republic of Ireland.
About Permira
Permira is a leading international private equity firm. The Permira
Funds make long-term investments to transform the performance of
businesses, helping management to realise new visions and build
stronger and more sustainable organizations.
The firm's teams are based in Frankfurt, Guernsey, London,
Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, Stockholm, and Tokyo,
advising funds with a total committed capital of approximately EUR22
billion (US$30 billion). Since 1985, the Permira Funds have completed
over 180 private equity transactions. For more information visit: www.permira.com
About Olympus Capital Holdings Asia
Olympus Capital Holdings Asia is a leading middle market private equity
firm specializing in partnering with Asian shareholders and management
teams to expand their businesses regionally and globally. Olympus
Capital has a network of investment and operating professionals located
in offices in Tokyo, Delhi, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and New York.
Since its establishment in 1997, Olympus Capital has invested over $1.2
billion on behalf of funds and co-investors in more than 25 portfolio
companies throughout Asia. Olympus Capital, one of the early entrants
to the Japan private equity market, completed its first Japanese
investments in partnership with a major Japanese bank and a trading
company in 2000, and established its Tokyo office soon thereafter in
2001. Target industry sectors include business services, agribusiness,
financial services and environmental services. Recent investments
include Quatrro BPO Solutions (India) and Kyoto Kimono Yuzen (Japan).
For more information, please contact:
Contact:
Linda Frerichs
Global Communications Head
Arysta LifeScience North America Corporation
Tel: +1-919-678-4948
Email: linda.frerichs@arystalifescience.com