Clearwater advises on US-Dutch acquisition deal
ADVISORS in Birmingham have helped secure a deal between companies based in the United States and the Netherlands.
A team from Clearwater Corporate Finance helped broker the undisclosed deal which saw Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of Unilever, sell its stake in BAC to NASDAQ-listed Life Technologies Corporation.
Netherlands-based BAC is a leader in the discovery, development and manufacture of protein purification products.
Global biotechnology business Life Technologies, which had revenues of $3.7bn in 2011, said the deal would enable it to expand its capabilities and product offering in the growing market of biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing.
The team at Clearwater comprised partner Philip Nuttall and senior healthcare analyst Ramesh Jassal, with support from director Nick Horrocks, who advised Unilever Ventures.
Mr Nuttall said: “This deal is the second cross border sale on which we have advised Unilever Ventures in the last 13 months. Both transactions involved the disposal of a business with low revenues, but with recently developed intellectual property and knowhow, to global strategic purchasers.”
Ramesh Jassal said: “This acquisition will help expand Life Technologies’ product offering in downstream processing, complementing its upstream capabilities and providing a one stop solution in biopharmaceutical processes. The technology also gives Life the option to develop products for clinical, diagnostic and general research applications.”
Andrew Lane, who represented Unilever Ventures on the board of BAC, said: “We want to congratulate CEO Laurens Sierkstra and the entire BAC team for what they have achieved. We are delighted to have invested in such a fantastic company and we wish them every success in the future.”
Unilever Ventures invested in BAC in 2002, after spinning the technology out from the Unilever Vlaardingen R&D facility in the Netherlands. In 2005 BAC completed a Series A Investment round led by Unilever Ventures and FF&P Private Equity.
