Kartesia, the European specialist provider of capital solutions for small and mid-sized companies, is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with ADL Bionatur Solutions and BTC to acquire a 51% stake in ADL Biopharma (“ADL”), a Spanish biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and production of antibiotics and precision fermentation processes. 

The agreement also includes a new tranche of 5m€ made available at closing by Kartesia for the general corporate purposes of ADL, a commitment by the shareholders to approve a capital increase of at least 10m€ to be completed before year-end, pro rata of the stake of each party, and the A&E (an amend and extend facility) of the senior financing. With immediate effect, ADL Biopharma will operate as an independent entity from ADL Bionatur Solutions.

The total investment of 15m€ provides ADL with the required financial stability to execute its long-term strategic plan, which includes investments in additional capacity and production optimisation in order to support the strong volume demand from customers. Among others, ADL plans to invest in a new media preparation plant, add downstream capacity and re-start the second phase of construction of the waste treatment plant.

The board of directors has been expanded to 5 seats with the appointment of 3 new independent directors: Raúl Crespo (Deloitte, Oquendo, KPMG), Ignacio Urbelz (Calidad Pascual, Vivesoy, HP) and Mirco Iwan (Capua Bioservices, Eismann), adding relevant expertise in key areas such as finance, operations and sales.

The new board will supervise the execution of the strategic plan focusing on 3 main areas: developing new Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) business leveraging the in-house expertise and available industrial capacity, improving the service level provided to customers and deploying the aforementioned investments. ADL is committed to become the preferred development and production partner for companies in growing end-markets such as alternative bio-based food, cosmetics and health/personal care products.