Tate & Lyle agrees sale of Molasses business

25 Nov 2010

| Filed in:

Tate & Lyle PLC (“Tate & Lyle”) announces that it has signed an agreement for the sale of its Molasses business to W&R Barnett Ltd. The consideration is £67 million payable in cash, subject to closing adjustments for net cash and working capital. The proceeds will be used to reduce Tate & Lyle’s net debt. Completion is conditional on employee consultation and is expected to occur in the next few weeks.

Molasses comprises the global molasses trading desk based in London, UK and other worldwide marketing operations together with the UK third party storage operations. These businesses had external sales of £228 million and made an operating profit of £13 million in the year to 31 March 2010, and had gross assets of £81 million at that date. The sale excludes historic UK pension assets and liabilities and, after costs and subject to movements in exchange rates, is expected to give rise to a small book profit on disposal.

On 1 July 2010, Tate & Lyle announced the disposal of its EU Sugar Refining operations, and its intention to launch processes to sell the remaining businesses within its Sugars division, principally Molasses and Vietnamese sugar. The sale of Molasses is being announced today, and the sale of the Vietnamese sugar business is progressing to plan.

Javed Ahmed, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle said:

“I would like to thank our Molasses employees for their hard work and commitment over many years, and wish them every success in the future.

“Tate & Lyle’s clear priority is to grow its Speciality Food Ingredients business, supported by cash generated from Bulk Ingredients. This disposal represents another important step as we focus, fix and grow our business.”

Click here for our press image gallery

About Tate & Lyle PLC:

Supported by our 165-year history of ingredient innovation, we partner with customers to provide consumers with healthier and tastier choices when they eat and drink. We are proud that millions of people around the world consume products containing our ingredients and solutions every day.

Through our leading expertise in sweetening, mouthfeel and fortiﬁcation, we develop ingredients and solutions which reduce sugar, calories and fat, add ﬁbre and protein, and provide texture and stability to food and drink in categories including beverages, dairy, bakery, snacks, soups, sauces, and dressings.

Tate & Lyle recently acquired CP Kelco, a leading provider of pectin, speciality gums and other nature-based ingredients to create a leader in mouthfeel, significantly enhancing our solutions capabilities. Following this combination, we now have more than 5,000 employees working in around 75 locations in 39 countries, serving customers in more than 120 countries. Science, Solutions, Society is our brand promise and how we will achieve our purpose of Transforming Lives through the Science of Food. By living our purpose, we believe we can successfully grow our business and have a positive impact on society. We live our purpose in three ways, by supporting healthy living, building thriving communities and caring for our planet.

Tate & Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L. American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. For the year ended 31 March 2024, and on a pro forma basis which assumes for illustrative purposes that the combination with CP Kelco took place on 1 April 2023, revenue for the enlarged Tate & Lyle Group would have been £2.25 billion. For more information, please visit www.tateandlyle.com or follow Tate & Lyle on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook or YouTube

Previous press release Tate & Lyle Signs Contract Manufacturing Agreement with Amyris

View all Press releases

Next press release Annual General Meeting and Interim Management Statement