IFF Selling Food Ingredients Biz to Investors for $4.3 Billion
International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) last week announced an agreement to sell its food ingredients business to funds advised by CVC Capital Partners for approximately $4.3 billion.
The business unit provided texturants, emulsifiers, plant-based solutions and other specialty ingredients to mostly multinational food and beverage customers. In 2025, the Food Ingredients business that will be divested generated nearly $3.1 billion in sales and approximately $430 million of earnings before taxes, etc.
IFF will retain an approximately 10% minority equity interest in the business, a stake worth around $200 million, “permitting continued collaboration and cooperation between IFF and Food Ingredients and allowing IFF and its shareholders to participate in future value creation under its new ownership,” the seller said.
“The transaction marks a significant step in IFF’s portfolio transformation and is expected to strengthen the company’s focus on its innovation-driven businesses: Taste, Scent, and Health & Biosciences,” IFF said.
Over the last several years, IFF has simplified and focused its portfolio by divesting 13 non-core businesses.
CVC is a global private markets manager with a network of 29 offices throughout EMEA, the Americas and Asia, with approximately €209 billion of assets under management. Funds managed or advised by CVC’s private equity strategy are invested in more than 150 companies worldwide, which have combined annual sales of over €240 billion and employ more than 660,000 people.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.