Press release

Heerlen, NL, 19 Jul 2012 09:15 CEST

Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, announced today that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada, the leading global provider of fish-oil derived nutritional products to the dietary supplement and food and beverage markets. The acquisition, announced on 18 May 2012, strengthens and complements DSM’s newly established, global Nutritional Lipids growth platform. The acquisition, for a total enterprise value of C$540 million, is expected to be EPS accretive from 2013 onwards.

Feike Sijbesma, CEO and Chairman of the DSM Managing Board, said: “With the completion of this transaction we have now completed €1.7 billion worth of growth enhancing acquisitions since we embarked on our current strategic plan less than two years ago, including nearly €1.3 billion in the Nutrition cluster, as we continue to further improve our attractive portfolio in health, nutrition and materials to deliver shareholder value with stronger, more stable growth and profitability. After our successful acquisition of Martek in 2011, the acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada is the logical next step in developing our Nutritional Lipids into a major growth platform for our Nutrition cluster.”

Leendert Staal, President and CEO of DSM Nutritional Products, commented: “Having completed the acquisition in a timeframe of only two months, we are very pleased to welcome all employees of Ocean Nutrition Canada to DSM today and I look forward to developing this exciting opportunity together. Our attention is now fully focused on ensuring a smooth integration of the business in a timely and efficient manner. Business continuity and customer satisfaction will remain key priorities for us as we focus on future synergy generation between both businesses.”

Strategic rationale

With the acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada, DSM strengthens and complements its Nutritional Lipids growth platform, which was established after the acquisition of Martek in 2011. DSM can now uniquely offer a full range of products in the rapidly growing nutritional lipids category, offering both fish oil derived omega-3 fatty acids and microbially derived nutritional lipids.

The nutritional lipids category is at an early stage yet well established and is based on strong science, offering significant growth opportunities across a broad range of market segments and applications. Healthy nutritional lipids have been shown in a growing body of scientific evidence to provide significant health benefits and support brain, eye, and cardiovascular health throughout life, yet many consumers do not include enough in their daily diets because dietary sources are limited. In particular, leading experts have noted the important health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, a specific class of nutritional lipids.

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), is an omega-3 fatty acid abundant in the brain and retina and important to supporting brain health throughout life. EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) is also an omega-3 fatty acid important for human health. Together, EPA and DHA have been identified as important to supporting cardiovascular health throughout life.

Ocean Nutrition Canada is the leading provider of fish-derived DHA and EPA omega-3 with its MEG-3® product line. DSM is the leading provider of microbial DHA from algae with its life’sDHA™ product line. Also part of the DSM portfolio is life’sARA™, a microbially derived nutritional lipid called ARA (arachidonic acid). ARA is an omega-6 fatty acid and the principal omega-6 in the brain. Like DHA, ARA is important for proper brain development in infants.

Given the very different value proposition and pricing of fish oil derived omega-3s compared to microbial derived nutritional lipids, these products do not compete. In fact, Ocean Nutrition Canada’s fish derived omega-3 products are highly complementary to DSM’s existing microbially derived nutritional lipid products as they address different customer needs and reach different market segments.

The acquisition allows DSM to strengthen and complement its newly established, global Nutritional Lipids growth platform. It strengthens DSM’s position in the North American dietary supplement market by adding fish-oil derived omega-3 fatty acids to its portfolio and it allows DSM to further leverage its global infrastructure to expand Ocean Nutrition Canada’s sales in dietary supplement markets outside North America and in the food and beverage markets worldwide. In addition, by leveraging forms, encapsulation and emulsification technologies, the range of applications and products can be expanded.

DSM expects the transaction to be EPS accretive from 2013 onwards. The acquisition is expected to accelerate revenue growth through material revenue synergies with expanded distribution, marketing and product development. Customary operational efficiencies will also be realized in the integration process.

The acquisition of Ocean Nutrition Canada is the fifth acquisition in the Nutrition cluster since DSM in September 2010 announced its corporate strategy DSM in motion: driving focused growth. These acquisitions form an integral part of DSM’s strategy for its Nutrition cluster and will contribute to the current and future growth of DSM’s attractive portfolio in health, nutrition and materials. The resulting stronger, more stable growth and profitability will enable DSM to continue to deliver shareholder value.

Ocean Nutrition Canada

Founded in 1997, Ocean Nutrition Canada is a Canada-based supplier of fish-oil derived omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) to the dietary supplement and food and beverage markets. The company is headquartered in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) with approximately 415 employees and has production sites in Canada, the United States and Peru. Every day over 21 million servings of its MEG-3® product line are consumed in supplements and foods and beverages across the world. Net sales for 2012 are expected to be approximately C$190 million with an EBITDA of C$55-60 million. The average annual growth of the company over the past 5 years in local currency amounted to nearly 20%.