Proparco Divests from Naturex Morocco
7 September 2009
Read by 3184 persons
Proparco, a subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD) dedicated to private sector investment, is divesting from Naturex Morocco (formerly Maroc Extraction). The French parent company, Naturex SA, whose market capitalization is €136 million (MAD 1.52 billion) on the Paris Stock Exchange, has just increased its control of its Moroccan subsidiary to 96.35% by repurchasing Proparco's minority stake (nearly 7%) for €1.2 million, or approximately MAD 13.5 million. This values Naturex Morocco, created in 1992, at nearly MAD 190 million.
The departing shareholder thus realizes a substantial capital gain after more than eight years in the company. In the meantime, Naturex Morocco, one of the few Moroccan producers of plant extracts for the food and nutraceutical industries (food supplements ingested in the form of tablets, powders, gels, etc.), has developed considerably. In addition to the workforce and production capacity, which have almost doubled since 1999, reaching 85 people and 10,000 tons of plants processed annually at the end of 2006, the financial base has been regularly expanded with equity totaling nearly MAD 45 million (compared to MAD 23 million in 1999).
Planned capacity expansion by the end of 2007
And the growth effort is not weakening, since the Naturex group plans to further increase the processing capacity of its Nouaceur site (11,000 m² including 2,200 m² built) by the end of 2007, a few months after strengthening the research & development facilities and teams there.
These investments are explained by the desire to consolidate the competitive advantage of the Moroccan subsidiary in both labor costs and the quality of the group's supply of Mediterranean aromatic plants, almond and apricot kernels (widely used in cosmetics).
It should be noted that Naturex SA (parent company), which reported consolidated revenue of €66 million (MAD 740 million) in 2006, includes among its shareholders the dean of venture capital in Morocco, the Moussahama fund, which holds 4.6% of the capital. This stake is worth more than MAD 70 million (almost four times the initial investment) and represents one of the most beautiful nuggets of the subsidiary of the Banques Populaires group.
Published on: 21/09/2007
lavieeco.com
The departing shareholder thus realizes a substantial capital gain after more than eight years in the company. In the meantime, Naturex Morocco, one of the few Moroccan producers of plant extracts for the food and nutraceutical industries (food supplements ingested in the form of tablets, powders, gels, etc.), has developed considerably. In addition to the workforce and production capacity, which have almost doubled since 1999, reaching 85 people and 10,000 tons of plants processed annually at the end of 2006, the financial base has been regularly expanded with equity totaling nearly MAD 45 million (compared to MAD 23 million in 1999).
Planned capacity expansion by the end of 2007
And the growth effort is not weakening, since the Naturex group plans to further increase the processing capacity of its Nouaceur site (11,000 m² including 2,200 m² built) by the end of 2007, a few months after strengthening the research & development facilities and teams there.
These investments are explained by the desire to consolidate the competitive advantage of the Moroccan subsidiary in both labor costs and the quality of the group's supply of Mediterranean aromatic plants, almond and apricot kernels (widely used in cosmetics).
It should be noted that Naturex SA (parent company), which reported consolidated revenue of €66 million (MAD 740 million) in 2006, includes among its shareholders the dean of venture capital in Morocco, the Moussahama fund, which holds 4.6% of the capital. This stake is worth more than MAD 70 million (almost four times the initial investment) and represents one of the most beautiful nuggets of the subsidiary of the Banques Populaires group.
Published on: 21/09/2007
lavieeco.com
