About the deal

Founded in 2014 as a spin-off of the animal health laboratory Sogeval (Ceva group), Theseo is a global company that formulates, manufactures & markets animal biosecurity products for disinfection applications across all farming processes, with a focus on pig & poultry. Strong of 100 employees based in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil, Theseo is a high-growth player in the industry thanks to both organic and external growth.

Backed by Groupe Avril, a diversified French group involved in the oils and proteins sector, Theseo tripled its revenues within 6 years to reach €33m in 2020.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with registered sales of €6.1 billion in 2020. The company relies on 14,300 employees in 33 countries and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics.

The acquisition of Theseo, for €70m, will enable Lanxess to expand its range of products for the animal hygiene market and will, in the future, allow the company to offer products to the animal nutrition industry.

What we did

Capitalmind Investec has assisted Groupe Avril all along the sale process of Theseo: advising transaction strategy, defining deal tactics, qualifying buyers, identifying the best partner for the business, and organizing a competitive bid up to closing.

This deal illustrates Capitalmind Investec’s know-how in supporting companies in their growth project over the long-term: this is our 17th transaction for Avril group and our 4th for its subsidiary Theseo.