Australia: Starpharma sells agrochemicals business to Agrium

Starpharma Holdings has completed a transaction to sell its agrochemicals and Priostar business (Starpharma Agrochemicals) to Agrium for a $35 million in cash consideration. The Starpharma Agrochemical business will be operated by Agrium’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Loveland Products.

“The proceeds from the sale of Starpharma Agrochemicals places Starpharma in an excellent financial position to expand and accelerate the development of its internal DEP programs, and increase shareholder value through its pharmaceutical portfolio.”

Starpharma Agrochemicals is comprised of key patents and technical know-how as well as a small number of staff dedicated solely to Priostar dendrimers and agrochemicals operations. This business is independent of Starpharma’s DEP and VivaGel products and related intellectual property portfolios.

Commenting on the transaction, Starpharma Chief Executive Officer, Dr Jackie Fairley said: “The sale of Starpharma Agrochemicals is an exciting milestone for the company and the culmination of our strategy to maximise the value of the Priostar technology. We achieved this outcome through the development of a range of value-added formulations utilising Priostar to a stage where those products had high attraction value as differentiated products for a market-facing third party such as Agrium. It’s a very pleasing outcome, Agrium is an ideal buyer to realise the full potential of Priostar.”

The transaction involves the sale of Starpharma’s wholly-owned US subsidiary, Dendritic Nanotechnologies, and a newly created Australian subsidiary containing all Priostar and agrochemical intellectual property and business assets.

The sale of Starpharma’s Agrochemicals business to Agrium follows a global process conducted by Starpharma and its financial adviser, Macquarie Capital (Australia) Limited.

For more information:
www.agrium.com
www.starpharma.com