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Amyris to sell selected cosmetic-ingredient portfolios to Givaudan

| By Mary Bailey

Givaudan International SA (Vernier, Switzerland) announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire certain cosmetic ingredients from Amyris, Inc. (Emeryville, Calif.) , including Neossance Squalane, the high-performant emollient, Neossance Hemisqualane, the plant-based silicone alternative and CleanScreen, a sustainable sun protector.

Givaudan and Amyris have signed a long term partnership agreement under which Amyris will continue to manufacture ingredients for Givaudan to use in cosmetics, as well as provide access to their innovation capabilities. Givaudan will become the commercialisation partner for future sustainable beauty ingredients. 

Amyris is a leading biotechnology company accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable consumption through its Lab-to-Market™ technology platform in beauty, health & wellness and flavours & fragrances markets. Amyris and Givaudan have a significant partnership to leverage the value of Amyris’ technology platform for designing, scaling and manufacturing the best performing biofermented ingredients.

“I am delighted about this transaction, which fits perfectly with our 2025 strategic ambitions to develop our active beauty business while leveraging our biotechnology leadership in partnership with Amyris’ expertise. In the future, we will continue to push the boundaries of biotech, creating new sustainable innovations for a better beauty future.”

Maurizio Volpi, President Givaudan Fragrance & Beauty

“We share the same values with Givaudan, offering sustainable consumer products to improve people’s life while protecting the environment. Today we are reaching a major new step in our commercial partnership that we are very proud of,” said John Melo, Amyris President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our technology and biomanufacturing capabilities deliver truly differentiated sustainable ingredients that are what consumers are demanding and enable our partners to lead in their markets. This transaction is a major step forward in funding our growth and enabling us to reach operating profitability.”

Markus Rassmann, Head of Active Beauty, said: “Today, we have the widest offering of biotech cosmetic ingredients on the market. We are proud to expand our Active Beauty portfolio with these key active cosmetic ingredients Neossance® Squalane, Neossance® Hemisqualane and CleanScreen™ coming from our long-standing partner Amyris. They represent unique added value in answering our customers’ expectations for innovative, sustainable and efficient beauty solutions.”

The terms of the deal include a combination of an upfront cash consideration and a performance based earnout, along with a long term manufacturing agreement. Further details have not been disclosed and Givaudan plans to fund the transaction from existing resources. Amyris’ active cosmetic ingredients business would have represented approximately USD 30 million of incremental sales to Givaudan’s results in 2022 on a proforma basis. The planned transaction remains subject to formal approvals from the relevant regulatory authorities and the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023.