Author: Xiaoshidai
Facing the present and the future, Ausnutria has recently "unlocked" an overseas acquisition.
Yesterday, the dairy company, known for its Jiabei Aite goat milk powder, announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it has completed the acquisition of the remaining 50% stake in Amalthea Group held by Dairy Goat Holland B.V. through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ausnutria B.V.
This means that after two years, Ausnutria has finally taken the Dutch sheep cheese company under its control.
Increase
Let's take a look at Ausnutria's announcement yesterday. According to the announcement, the company implemented the exercise of a put option to purchase the remaining 50% of the issued share capital of Amalthea Group held by Dairy Goat Holding for 22.1 million euros (equivalent to about 172 million yuan).
The purchase price of the put option is calculated by multiplying 8.5 times Amalthea Group's normalized EBITDA of approximately €4.6 million, less normalized net debt, multiplied by 50.0% of the total share capital of Amalthea Group in the shares purchased.
Upon completion of the Execution Agreement, Amalthea Group will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company and its financial results, assets and liabilities will be consolidated in the Company's consolidated financial statements.
Xiaoshidai introduced that on October 23, 2022, Ausnutria took the lead in acquiring the shares of Dairy Goat Holland B.V. through Ausnutria B.V., accounting for 50% of the issued shares of Amalthea Group after the completion of the restructuring.
Since the first two years, Ausnutria's interest in Amalthea Group has continued unabated?
According to the data, Amalthea is a Dutch dairy company with a long history. The company was founded in the Netherlands in 1990, mainly engaged in goat milk processing and cheese production around the world, not only has a fully automatic control cheese production plant, but also has a fully automatic control industry chain from dairy farmer production, processing to consumer terminals, can provide the market with a full range of cheese products from soft to hard, the products sell well in 35 countries and regions around the world, its semi-hard sheep cheese production in the "cheese kingdom" Netherlands ranked first, and won the Dutch sheep cheese gold medal for many times.
On the other hand, Amalthea sees that this goat cheese company has more far-reaching strategic value - Amalthea can not only help Ausnutria expand its product layout, but also build a solid moat for it to the goat milk industry chain.
Since infants and young children cannot eat full-fat powder directly (because it is not easy to absorb), whey powder is an irreplaceable raw material in infant milk powder. Its addition can adjust the proportion of casein in milk powder, so that the ratio of whey protein and casein is close to that of breast milk.
Whey powder itself is a natural by-product of cheese or casein production. According to the production process, the goat whey produced in the production process of goat cheese, which is the core raw material added to the infant formula goat milk powder, at present, China's goat whey resources mainly rely on foreign imports, which is a relatively scarce raw material for infant formula.
In recent years, goat whey prices have skyrocketed due to scarcity. Chinanews has reported that in the first half of 2017, the price of D90 desalted goat whey powder was 130,000 yuan/ton, which rose to 150,000 yuan/ton in November, and reached 250,000 yuan/ton at the peak, which was at least 5 times the price of cow whey powder.
Ausnutria said yesterday that after the completion of the acquisition, Amalthea will help Ausnutria achieve internal self-sufficiency in core goat milk powder raw materials, further strengthen the absolute competitive advantage of the goat milk industry chain, and lock in the "sheep" leading pattern of the goat milk industry for Ausnutria; At the same time, Ausnutria product system will add new cheese categories.
The ceiling is not reached
"On the basis of mastering the world's leading industrial chain resources, the company has increased the goat milk supply chain this time, which reflects the confidence in the goat milk industry and the determination to continue to deepen the goat milk business." Ren Zhijian, executive director and chief executive officer of Ausnutria, said in a briefing.
In fact, as the "top brand" of Ausnutria, Ausnutria has paid absolute attention to its Jiabei Aite. At present, the brand is building a product matrix of goat milk powder products that meet the nutrition of the whole life cycle, and has been sold simultaneously in more than 60 countries and regions around the world, and has also ranked first in the global goat milk powder market in terms of sales volume and sales for many years [1].
According to the data, in the Chinese market, Jiabei Aite has accounted for more than 6% of China's imported infant and child goat milk powder sales for 6 consecutive years (2018-2023); In the international market, Jiabei Aite has completed the strategic layout of the world's top three markets (Asia, Europe, North America), and has a leading market share in Russia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Ausnutria also continues to deepen the scientific research of goat milk in Jiabei Aite. At home and abroad, Jiabei Aite has carried out more than 130 scientific research projects, invention patents account for 50% of the patents of pure goat milk protein infant formula milk powder, and the number of papers published ranks first among goat milk powder brands [2], and the relevant achievements are open to the industry for citation, which is worthy of the name of "global goat milk scientific research leader".
It is worth mentioning that after 10 years of scientific research verification, Jiabei Aite Infant Formula Goat Milk Powder (0-12 months) officially passed the review of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2023, becoming the world's first infant formula goat milk powder brand that meets FDA nutrition and safety requirements and has been marketed in the United States in early 2024.
Although affected by factors such as the low birth rate of newborns, the growth of the infant formula market has slowed down, but goat milk powder still shows a good momentum in the sub-category.
According to the "Research on the Development of China's Goat Milk Powder Industry II" released by the Food and Drug Industry Development and Supervision Research Center of the Institute of Industry and Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China's goat milk powder market has maintained an annual market increase of more than 25% since 2013, and is expected to expand to nearly 30 billion yuan in 2030.
"In the future, the goat milk powder industry will gradually move towards the scale of 20 billion and 30 billion. In this process, Jiabei Aite's goal is to achieve 10 billion yuan. Ausnutria previously told Xiaoshidai.
At present, with the "east wind" of global resource synergy with Yili Group, the major shareholder of Ausnutria, Jiabei Aite is accelerating its "going to sea". At the dealer conference held in May this year, the company revealed that it has included the Indian market as its next key target, and plans to invest in key resource development in order to take the lead in competing for the market with the largest number of newborns in the world.
Ren Zhijian said: Ausnutria believes that the development space of the goat milk industry is far from reaching the ceiling, with the development of the entire industry, consumers' recognition of goat milk will be further enhanced, Ausnutria will fully consolidate the core advantages accumulated by Jiabei Aite, continue to expand the global market, and move towards "10 billion Jiabei" at full speed.
Derivation:
[1] https://www.jiemian.com/article/11013734.html "The World's No. 1 Goat Milk Brand" Jiabei Aite Accounts for More Than 6% of the Sales Share of Imported Infant and Child Goat Milk Powder for 6 Consecutive Years
[2]https://news.pedaily.cn/20230407/55050.shtml: "At present, Jiabei Aite's invention patents account for 50% of the patents for pure goat milk protein infant formula milk powder, and the number of papers published ranks first among goat milk powder brands. "