Kartesia and Farallon are pleased to announce that they have acquired 100% of the share capital of DSBG Holding and its subsidiaries (the “Group”) alongside its Management team, from a consortium of creditors. Kartesia and Farallon are providing the entire unitranche financing as well as the majority of the equity and will therefore become the new reference shareholder of the Group. 

The Group is a world leader in Engineering, Procurement and Manufacturing (EPM) offering green and brownfield solutions to a wide customer base in various niche markets, leveraging on proprietary technologies and one of the greatest installed base worldwide with more than 3,000 references delivered in the past 10 years.

The Group is the result of the merge in 2006 of 2 EP leaders in their respective fields: Desmet and Ballestra. The former is specialised in the extraction of oils & fats from seed crops for human food and animal feed, being also very active in the oleochemical segment, as the next step in the value chain. Ballestra focuses in surfactants, detergents and soap, which are specialty chemicals that are a downstream product of oleochemicals, and is also engaged in 2 key inorganic chemicals, sulphuric and phosphoric acids, targeting a wide range of industrial and food applications, and other chemicals. To support the EP activities, over the past years the Group has acquired and integrated 3 manufacturing sites in Europe that are fully complementary to the EP activities and enhance the positioning of Desmet Ballestra as a realiable and reputable partner across the globe.

The Group is benefitting from favourable long-term trends, the most important being worldwide population growth and the increase in the standard of living. The Group has a strong local presence in South-East Asia, India, Middle-East and Africa, where a significant share of the new plants are installed to serve the ever-growing demand. In mature markets like Europe or US, there is a recurrent demand for spare parts and value-added services like trouble-shoorting, revamping and upgrading of ageing facilities, as well as heavy investments in HVO.

Laurent Bouvier, Managing Partner at Kartesia, said, “Desmet Ballestra has been one of our first investments in fund III, we have supported the business and its management team during the past 7 years, including the financing by fund IV of the acquisition of Mazzoni in 2017, a Milan-based soap equipment manufacturer. We are delighted to accompany the Group in this new development phase, alongside a highly competent management team which has become a key shareholder of the Group through the transaction.”

Philip Bayet, CEO of Desmet Ballestra, mentioned: “We are pleased to have Farallon teaming up with Kartesia and the management in this new transaction, providing us new financial facilities essential to pursue targeted acquisitions to reinforce our already unique prime brand portfolio”.