Aurelius exits Briar Chemicals to trade for EUR 83m

Ero Partsakoulaki
11 October 2022

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European sponsor Aurelius has sold Briar Chemicals, an UK-based producer of agrochemicals and fine chemicals, to crop protection group Safex Chemicals India for approximately EUR 83m.

The company is expected to report revenue of above EUR 70m for FY22, according to the statement.

The mid-market GP, which had bought Briar in a corporate carve-out transaction from Bayer CropScience in 2012, had been working with DC Advisory to run an auction for the company since April 2022, as reported. The company was being marketed off EBITDA of roughly GBP 10m, as reported.

Following Aurelius' carve-out, Briar's Norwich site was established as a stand-alone contract manufacturer. The GP reorganised production to improve operational on-site support and established a third-party licensing business, according to the announcement.

The company will now become part of Safex's European business, according to the announcement. The India-based company partnered with Chryscapital in 2021, a private equity fund based in India. Safex has a product portfolio of over 100 products across insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, micronutrients, pesticides and plant growth regulators. Having grown 18x in the last 11 years, it has revenues of INR 700 Crores (EUR 88.8m) in the current fiscal year, according to its website. It has more than 500 employees and operates five manufacturing facilities located across India.

Aurelius is currently investing in its European Opportunities IV vehicle, which raised EUR 360m last April. The fund investments are made in the UK and European mid-market companies, focusing on corporate carve-outs, according to Unquote Data.

Company
Based in Norwich, UK, Briar employs around 250 people to provide chemicals to the crop protection and specialty industrial markets. It offers a wide agrochemical contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) asset portfolio, from labs to large scale reactors, operating from 115 acres site facilities.

People
Aurelius − Matthias Täubl (CEO), Gerhard Engleder (vice president).
Safex − S.K Chaudhary (founding director).

Advisers
Vendor − DC Advisory (corporate finance); Deloitte (financial DD); Travers Smith (legal DD); EY (tax DD), NexantECA (commercial DD); Birketts (property).
Company − Investec (corporate finance), KPMG (financial and tax DD), Bird & Bird (legal); TRC (environmental).