The consideration is £67m 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, and other worldwide marketing operations together with the UK third party storage operations.
These businesses had external sales of £228m and made an operating profit of £13m in the year to 31 March 2010, and had gross assets of £81m 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.
Source: Tate & Lyle
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024