Bio-economy company BRAIN (together with its subsidiaries “The BRAIN Group” or “BRAIN”) has announced the signing of a share purchase agreement between BRAIN and Biocatalysts based in Cardiff, Great Britain, and active in the field of speciality enzymes. This makes BRAIN the majority shareholder.

For over 35 years, Biocatalysts has focused on the development, production and distribution of speciality enzymes for various industries such as food and fine chemicals. BRAIN is a technology company in the field of industrial biotechnology, developing microorganisms, natural substances and enzymes for industrial use.

The strategic acquisition of a majority stake in Biocatalysts is, said BRAIN, intended to accelerate product-driven growth in the fast growing speciality enzyme market and broaden the portfolio of the enzyme business of BRAIN. This synergy, with respect to research and development as well as production and global distribution will hugely benefit both companies and their customers, the company believes. After the completion of the transaction, Biocatalysts will continue to operate under the current company name.

Biocatalysts is profitable and generated revenues of approximately €9.03 million (£7.978 million) in the 2015/2016 financial year. The revenue for the financial year 2016/17 is €10.81 million (£9,546 million), which corresponds to a growth rate of 19.7% compared to the previous year. Biocatalysts turnover has grown by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% between 2014/15 and 2016/17.

The strategic partnership between BRAIN and Biocatalysts will, says BRAIN, widen the commercial opportunities based on a strong complementary product portfolio and a perfect technology fit.

“The new strategic partnership with Biocatalysts is aimed at accelerating product development, production and marketing of innovations in a growing bioeconomy which includes the field of speciality enzymes,” said Dr. Jürgen Eck, CEO of BRAIN. “Biocatalysts is one of the leading players in this field with proven production expertise as well as access to global markets. Together we can fuel our complementary enzyme businesses, increase growth margins and strengthen BRAIN Group’s BioIndustrial segment which aims at marketing own product candidates.”

Stuart West, Managing Director of Biocatalysts, said: “Becoming a member of the BRAIN Group is an exciting opportunity to broaden our business in the rapidly growing speciality enzymes markets. Jointly we can more effectively develop innovative products for various industry sectors and bring them to market. BRAIN and Biocatalysts have a complementary product portfolio and also an excellent fit in terms of our vision to actively shape the future bioeconomy.”

Andrew Ellis, Technical and Compliance Director of Biocatalysts, said: “Merging the scientific and technological competencies of Biocatalysts and BRAIN offers great new technological possibilities. At Biocatalysts we have strong expertise and capabilities in speciality enzyme development and production at various scales, especially in the food, fine chemical and pharma sectors. We are currently expanding our state-of-the-art production facilities aligned to our continued success in enzyme development. BRAIN is a highly innovative biotechnology pioneer possessing a strong and complementary technology portfolio. Getting direct access to BRAIN’s BioArchive which encompasses a huge variety of enzymes and entire metabolic pathways will fuel our joint activities.”

Frank Goebel, CFO of BRAIN, said: “BRAIN has taken a number of strategic steps in recent months to grow its future business. Few weeks ago we founded our US subsidiary BRAIN LLC to internationalize our business operations and improve customer relations in the US. Direct market access and flexible production capacities are also of great importance. Therefore, we have taken a new milestone in our M&A strategy for strengthening our product-driven business segment BioIndustrial. Biocatalysts is a perfect partner to accelerate the work from labs to products and participate in the growth of the speciality enzyme markets.”