The listed investment company Value8 announced on Tuesday 6 November that Van Herk Investments in Rotterdam has taken over the majority interest in Ceradis from Value8. The transaction amounts to 10.2 million euros. Van Herk, known as an investor in real estate and medication, is now moving into the agricultural sector. In October it was already announced that Van Herk will participate in Brightlands Agrifood Ventures.
Ceradis, a spin-off of Wageningen University & Research, develops and produces environmentally friendly crop protection products for bell peppers and tomatoes in greenhouse horticulture. The first investment of Value8 dates from 2010. In 2017, Ceradis' turnover increased from 0.8 to 2.4 million euros, and in the first nine months of 2018 this positive trend continued. The strong growth in turnover can be attributed to CeraXek (against mildew on grapes), which is sold by Syngenta in France and Italy under the name Redeli.
Value8 is involved in Ceradis since 2010, at first as 25% stock holder. In further developments, Value8 acquired a majority interest by providing most of the additional investments. In recent years, Ceradis has made the choice to - instead of focusing on its own production - focus on the extension, further development, and strengthening of the product portfolio. Those efforts led to significant growth of turnover and strengthening of the portfolio in 2017 and 2018.
Read more in Dutch newspaper FD
Source: Ceradis