Kerry sells sweet ingredients portfolio to Advent for 500 million euros

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Kerry Group has agreed to sell its sweet ingredients portfolio to private equity major Advent International for 500 million euros ($538 million), the Irish company said on Wednesday.

Kerry, whose ingredients reach more than a billion people around the world, said the sale would help to refine its core taste and nutrition business, which it has recently boosted with a number of more technology focused acquisitions.

Advent, which will buy the sweet and cereal manufacturing unit through its IRCA portfolio company, said it expected to create a global leader in semi-finished food ingredients with about 1 billion euros in revenue by combining it with IRCA’s exisiting portfolio.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by David Goodman)