Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. announced the closing of the previously announced acquisition of Finland-based Pro Farm Technologies OY, adding proprietary nutrient and biostimulant technology and products for seed and foliar treatments to its portfolio.
Marrone Bio completed the acquisition of Pro Farm on September 13, 2019, for an agreed enterprise value of $31.8 million, including a combination of $6.2 million cash and 12.7 million shares of Marrone Bio stock paid to Pro Farm’s equity holders, debt holders and advisors in connection with the closing, as well as the opportunity for potential payment of a total of up to $7.5 million of additional shares of stock deliverable from 2021 through 2024 based on the achievement of agreed commercial milestones. As a result of the acquisition, Pro Farm became a wholly owned subsidiary of Marrone Bio.
In addition, on September 10, 2019, Pro Farm and Corteva Agriscience announced a strategic, long-term exclusive commercial agreement in Europe as part of Pro Farm’s expansion plans. Together, they will develop and commercialize a suite of seed-applied biological products based on Pro Farm’s proprietary technology platform. Corteva Agriscience will launch the first corn, sunflower and oilseed rape products based on Pro Farm’s biological platform in Europe in the 2020/2021 season, with a target treatment coverage of more than 10 million hectares (approximately 25 million acres).
“I am pleased to announce the completion of our strategic acquisition of Pro Farm, which not only provides Marrone Bio with an exciting, complementary technology, but with an expanded global distribution network for our entire product portfolio as well,” said Pam Marrone, Chief Executive Officer of Marrone Bio Innovations. “The addition of Pro Farm to our platform is expected to be accretive to net income and cash flow from operations in 2020. We look forward to further leveraging our technology and products across all three fast growing biologicals categories of bioprotection, biostimulants and bionutrition.”
