National Starch to acquire Penford’s specialty starch business in Australia

National Starch, a subsidiary of AkzoNobel, has entered into an agreement to acquire Penford’s Australian specialty grain wet milling and manufacturing facility based in Lane Cove and certain other intellectual property and assets of Penford’s Australian specialty starch business. Terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition will expand National Starch’s regional capability to supply specialty corn starches into food applications in the Asia-Pacific region. It also complements National Starch’s market position as a leading supplier of specialty ingredients derived from a variety of different starch bases.

“This is an excellent addition to our global portfolio and further strengthens our ability to support customers in the growing Asia-Pacific region,” said James P Zallie, President and CEO. “The addition to our global supply network will shorten our supply lines of specialty starches into Australia and Asia, improve our competitive advantage and enhance our ability to strengthen our leadership position in the region,” he said.

The acquisition will also add two new product lines to National Starch’s already extensive line of specialty food starches. These include Penford’s ‘clean label’ starch product technology to complement National Starch’s Novation functional native food starches and additional resistant starch products which expand National Starch’s line of products for nutrition and health applications.

The acquisition is currently in final review and is expected to close by the end of November.