The Wacker Chemical Group has acquired contract manufacturing organization (CMO) ADL BioPharma for approximately €100 million.

The shares were purchased from Kartesia, a financial investor with whom Wacker signed a corresponding agreement finalizing the transaction last week. Following Wacker’s purchase of fermentation assets in the northern Spanish city of León in 2016, the chemical group now owns the entire site.

The acquisition of the company, employing a staff of roughly 300, expands Wacker’s fermentation capacities by almost 2,000 cubic meters (gross volume) and adds additional capacities for recovery and purification processes.

Wacker said that it will continue and grow existing customer relationships maintained by ADL BioPharma in its capacity as CMO for fermentation-based products for the food, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries.

“Acquiring ADL BioPharma is an important step in the continued growth of our biotechnology business, with which we expect to generate one billion euros in sales in 2030,” said Wacker’s CEO Christian Hartel, explaining the reasons for the investment. “Development at ADL BioPharma has been very good in recent years, and their sales have grown considerably. The additional fermentation capacities will provide a foundation for growth in the field of sustainably produced dietary ingredients. Wacker’s technological expertise combined with the capacities of ADL BioPharma will make us a much stronger player on this growth market.”

The acquisition of ADL BioPharma now makes Wacker owner of the entire plant, with total fermentation capacities of just under 3,000 cubic meters (gross volume).

Susanne Leonhartsberger, head of the Wacker Biosolutions business division, said, “ADL BioPharma’s CMO business is a very good fit for our portfolio. The company maintains extensive, extraordinarily important customer relationships that we will continue to pursue and expand still further. We will integrate these activities into Wacker Biosolutions, for example through the production of sustainable ingredients for the foods and nutritional supplements industries. This is an area where we foresee opportunities for growth at the León site in the coming years. We are happy to welcome our new colleagues into the company and plan to work with them on the continuous expansion of our business.”