Danisco: announces sale of Sugar A/S to Nordzucker AG

Copenhagen / DK. (das) Danisco A/S has agreed to sell its sugar unit Sugar A/S to Nordzucker AG for an enterprise value of 5’600 million DKK (750 million EUR). In addition, Danisco will receive 600 million DKK (80 million EUR) of cash proceeds from the sale of EU quota in 2007/2008 and earlier. According to a company statement Danisco Sugar has entered into an agreement with the Danish and Swedish beet growers associations in respect of beet supply for the forthcoming campaigns. Upon closing of the transaction, Danisco will contribute 150 million DKK (20 million EUR) to the beet growers in Denmark and Sweden to facilitate acquiring an equity interest in Danisco Sugar. The transaction is conditional upon merger clearance and the shareholders of Danisco A/S granting the Board of Directors a mandate to close the transaction at the Annual General Meeting on 20 August 2008. The transaction is expected to close within six months. Danisco does not expect to record any gain or loss from the divestment. Upon completion of the transaction, the Board of Directors expects to initiate a share buyback programme of between 750 million DKK and 1’000 million DKK (100 million EUR and 134 million EUR), bringing Danisco´s financial gearing in line with the lower end of our stated gearing target of 2,5x to 4,0x net debt / EBITDA. The divestment of Danisco Sugar is the final step towards the transformation of Danisco into a focused, bio-based, market-driven ingredients provider.