Abénex Capital and L Capital Sell Nutrition & Santé

A deal from France and these days, any deal or exit is news!  Abénex Capital and L Capital (an investment fund that’s sponsored by LVMH) have sold health food producer Nutrition & Santé (fyi, their brand Gerlinéa offers some nice diet cookies) to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., a Japanese drug, food and drinks maker.  Abénex and L Capital initially purchased Nutrition & Santé from Novartis in 2006 for €220m. 

Nutrition & Santé was founded in 1972 and is based in the French town of Revel.  Nutrition & Santé generated sales of €260m to 40 countries last year.

This deal continues a spending spree trend from Japan.  Japanese firms, notably in pharma, set a record pace for overseas acquisitions in the past year, thanks to strong cash positions and fairly steady credit markets at home.