Bluestar's Acquisition of Adisseo (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Donghong Li and Zhenning Yang

Format:Print
| Language:English

Abstract

This case describes the process of acquiring Adisseo of France in 2006 by Bluestar Group, the largest subsidiary of ChemChina (a Fortune 500 company). Adisseo was mainly engaged in the production of methionine, a feed additive, while China had no methionine production and had relied on its import for a long time. Bluestar started to communicate with Adisseo to acquire the latter's technology in 2000, when Adisseo was not interested. The global burst of bird flu in 2004 provided Bluestar a historical opportunity to purchase Adisseo. Afterward, with the help of intermediate agencies in the fields of strategy, accounting, legal affairs, etc., Bluestar reached an agreement with CVC, Adisseo's parent company, on Oct. 20, 2005, to purchase the whole Adisseo for €400m. The transaction was completed on Jan. 17, 2006. Ren Jianxin, President of Bluestar, was very excited by the largest M&A of a French company by a Chinese company in history. Next, he needed to think about how to complete the integration of Adisseo and make it develop well.