Eurazeo, along with its partners Ardian, Mérieux Equity Partners and Eximium, have sold their stakes in Humens, a producer of high-purity mineral-based specialty products, to Leto Partners, a French private equity firm focused on decarbonisation.
The equity investment made by the Eurazeo’s Mid-large buyout team has generated a cash-on-cash multiple of 2.7x and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 65% since the carve-out from Seqens’ group in December 2021. As part of this sale, the proceeds for Eurazeo’s balance sheet amount to EUR33m.
Humens, which mainly supplies sodium bicarbonate to the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and agri-food industries, as well as soda ash, which is used in the production of flat and container glass, has strong positions in Europe and Asia.
Initiated by its management back in 2014 and accelerated by Eurazeo and its partners since the acquisition of the Seqens group in June 2016, Humens has placed the energy transition at the heart of its growth strategy. This has resulted in two major investments: the construction of a biomass power plant, operational since 2023, and the RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) plant, scheduled to come into service in 2025. Humens intends to pursue its ambitious decarbonisation strategy by reducing its CO2 emissions by 60% and eliminating the use of coal in its industrial process by 2025.
Leto Partners’ support and expertise will enable Humens to accelerate its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) roadmap and take a second structuring and differentiating step, with the ambition of achieving net zero by 2035.
