Partner Article

Dickinson Dees advise on £4.25m deal

Dickinson Dees have advised Anpario plc on the £4.25 million acquisition of Meriden Animal Health.

Worksop based Anpario is a major supplier of natural high performance additives to enhance health, growth and sustainability in global agriculture and aquaculture markets. The acquisition of Meriden will now help Anpario to broaden its product technology and market share in the feed additive sector.

Meriden specialises in natural animal feed additive products, and the Orego-Stim range is a leading brand across 60 countries worldwide.

The Dickinson Dees team was led by Newcastle-based partner Jamie Pass and Matthew Smith, an associate in the firm’s Yorkshire office.

Jamie Pass said: “We are delighted to assist Anpario with all the legal work needed for this significant deal.

“The acquisition of Meriden is another important chapter in Anpario’s success story and it was a privilege to be involved.”

Meriden have ten full-time staff in the UK and Malaysia, and typically supplies through distributors in local territories except Australia where the company has a joint venture comapny.

The Chinese market accounted for 26% of the firms total sales during 2011, and continues ot grow well . Anpario now intends to give further support to this relationship in a bid to capitalise on the vast potential of the Chinese agricultural market.

Richard Edwards, Executive Vice Chairman of Anpario, commented: “The corporate team of Dickinson Dees delivered first-class legal advice for us, enabling us to complete the acquisition of Meriden with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss.

“We would like to thank the team for their excellent efforts.”

In line with Anpario’s strategy, Meriden will be run as a separate business enabling the team to focus on selling and marketing high quality feed additive products around the world.

Joining Anpario means Meriden’s management team will gain additional support and can benefit from working together with Anpario’s research and development resource to develop new and innovative products for sale under the Meriden brand.

Richard Edwards added: “Meriden’s significant presence in China increases our involvement in the world’s biggest producer of poultry and pig meat and reinforces our strategy to build more
significant positions in emerging agriculture and aquaculture markets.

“We are delighted to welcome the Meriden team and very much look forward to working with them in achieving continued success with the business.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .