Symrise has acquired 90.2% of Swedish biotics business, Probi, of which it has been a shareholder since 2012 and the largest shareholder since 2015.
The other two largest shareholders are Fjarde AP-fonden and Moneta Asset Management.
In a statement, Symrise said that through its active involvement, it already had a deep knowledge and understanding of Probi, its operations, and the market it operates in.
“Symrise has a long-term belief in Probi since the company has a very attractive product offering that makes the health-enhancing benefits of probiotics available to people everywhere, and a fantastic global team,” said the business.
A ‘focused strategy on health’
It continued to say that Symrise believed there was strong potential to elevate Probi to the next level under the Symrise group “as a key driver to Symrise’s focused strategy in health.”
It stated that it is “ideally placed to leverage and capitalise on the strong foundation the Probi team has built” and that joining forces will further strengthen its respective capabilities to serve the market.
Probi itself began in the mid 1980s as a research project in Sweden’s Lund University to learn whether probiotics could help critically ill patients and enhance their recovery
It gained momentum by filing a patent application for Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 299v (LP299V®), which is still the company’s most-studied bacterial strain, and Probi was officially founded in 1991.
The acceptance period for the offer is expected to commence on 18 December 2024 and end on 15 January 2025. An independent bid committee will now evaluate the offer.