BioGaia has previously owned 50 per cent of TwoPac AB and the remaining shares have been held by TwoPac’s management. BioGaia has now signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 50 per cent. The total purchase consideration amounts to SEK 30 million and the change of ownership will take place on 1 July 2013.
TwoPac AB was formed in 2002 to manufacture and develop packaging solutions for probiotics. At present the company primarily produces probiotic drops, but also manufactures straws on behalf of BioGaia. The company’s revenue consists entirely of sales to BioGaia. In 2012 the company completed a new factory in Eslöv, Sweden, that was financed mainly with loans from BioGaia. TwoPac is consolidated in the Group since 1 January 2011.
BioGaia has signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 50 per cent of the shares and TwoPac AB will thus become a wholly owned subsidiary of BioGaia AB. The motives is to gain full control over part of the company’s product manufacturing, but above all to join forces with TwoPac in effective development of new products that can be manufactured at a reasonable cost.
TwoPac is profitable. If the company had been acquired at January 1, 2012, BioGaia’s earnings per share would have increased from SEK 3.52 to SEK 3.70 (excluding licence revenue from Nestlé).
Per Hjalmarsson, the current President of TwoPac, will continue to manage the company.
“The most important aspect of the acquisition is that it will give us unlimited access to TwoPac’s product development capacity and expertise in building customised machinery,” says Peter Rothschild, President of BioGaia.
