Novozymes looks at smaller takeovers
Danish industrial enzymes producer Novozymes is on the look-out for acquisitions smaller than its 2010 purchase of EMD/Merck Crop BioScience for around $275 million, the group’s chief executive said.
"We can easily afford the things we are looking at," Novozymes Chief Executive Steen Riisgaard told Reuters in an interview after the company published fourth-quarter results.
"For us EMD was big. It cost 1.5 billion crowns," Riisgaard said. "So ‘small’ means less than that."
The acquired Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based EMD unit is a developer of natural inoculants used by farmers to improve plant health and crop yields.
Earlier on, Chief Financial Officer Benny Loft said Novozymes was looking at "small" acquisitions.
Danish industrial enzymes producer Novozymes is not constrained financially when it comes to acquisitions and it is currently looking at smaller acquisition targets, Loft said.
He also told Reuters that a new enzyme for second-generation biofuel production would help Novozymes outgrow the market for biofuel enzymes this year.
He said upward pressure on raw materials prices would continue this year.
Earlier on, Novozymes reported a smaller-than-expected 19% increase in fourth-quarter earnings before interest and tax and gave a cautious outlook for 2012 due to global economic uncertainty.
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