Etol Taken over by Israel's Frutarom

Celje, 17 January (STA) - Frutarom Industries has signed an agreement to

acquire 56% of Etol, the Celje-based maker of flavourings and essential

oils, for EUR 19.6m and plans to make an offer to buy the remaining shares

in the coming weeks, the Israeli company said in a press release on the

website of the London Stock Exchange.

The agreement on the acquisition was signed on Monday. The transaction

was performed through a Frutarom subsidiary in Switzerland. The acquisition

of 31.6% Etol's share capital was completed shortly following the signature

and acquisition of the remaining 24.4% will be completed in the coming

days.

Frutarom pointed to considerable synergy between the activities

of the two companies, expecting Etol to $significantly increase

Frutarom's customer base and scope of sales in emerging markets, expanding

its product portfolio and deepening Frutarom's operations and market

segment in these markets$.

Due to the acquisition, the Ljubljana

Stock Exchange suspended trading in the Etol share on Tuesday at the

issuer's request. The reason given was that the issuer's business

operations $have encountered a business event not known to the wide

public$.

Etol is a leading European food flavour maker with an

annual turnover of over EUR 40m and more than 200 employees. Etol develops

more than 1,000 new products every year and is present in more than 47

countries worldwide, according to information on the company's web

page.

The Etol group, which comprises eight companies, generated

nearly EUR 1.4m in net profit in the first nine months of 2011 on net

revenues of EUR 38.6m. The namesake parent company reported EUR 37.2m worth

of sales revenues and a net profit of EUR 1.1m.

Founded in 1924, Etol

develops, manufactures and markets taste solutions, focusing on natural

flavour products for the food and beverage industry. It also develops and

markets flavours and products based on local fruits, and plant bases for

beverages.