NEW YORK, Dec. 14 -- Pfizer Inc. agreed Thursday to sell its Food Science Group to Cultor Ltd. of Finland for $352.5 million in a deal expected to close in the first quarter. Pfizer said the transaction will allow it to focus exclusively on its core health-care businesses. The sale will include substantially all FSG assets except the cheese coagulant Chy-Max. 'For its part, Pfizer can now focus exclusively on health-care businesses where the company's investments in research and development are continuing to address unmet medical needs,' said William C. Steere Jr., Pfizer's chairman and chief executive. The deal will be financed through Cultor's cash resources and by long term international loans. Cultor said the deal will depress earnings slightly next year and then boost them in 1997. Stock of Pfizer closed up $1.125 Thursday to $66.25 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. Headquartered in New York, FSG accounted for $304 million of Pfizer's $8.3 billion in 1994 revenues. Cultor, which specializes in products for the food and feed industries, has annual sales of $1.4 billion. FSG posted operating profit of $31 million last year with operations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia. It supplies the food industry with reduced-calorie bulking agents, fat replacers, flavors, food protectants and specialty ingredients. 'The acquisition of FSG will strongly enhance Cultor's position in the food-ingredients business segment and executes Cultor's strategy to focus the company's growth in high-margin segments of value-added food and feed ingredients,' said Bjorn Mattsson, Cultor president and chief executive.
Cultor said combining its food science business with FSG will form an entity with $470 million in annual sales with 11 production plants and about 950 employess. Mattsson said Cultor's strengths are in microbiology, metabolic engineering, enzyme technology and expertise in separation technology, especially crystallization. FSG's core expertise is in organic chemistry, extraction technologies, food systems and product screening and product development. Cultor said the new Cultor Food Science will have strong positions in candy, chewing gum, soft drinks, meat products, dairy and ice cream sectors and in the baked products sector in all major international markets.
