ARCHIMED Pharma Services announces the spin-off of portfolio company Suanfarma’s subsidiary, SuanNutra

The corporate carve-out is part of Suanfarma’s strategy to aggressively build its core business in the active pharmaceutical ingredient market. SuanNutra, which accounts for approximately a quarter of Suanfarma’s sales, is a scalable, globally recognized leader in the nutraceutical ingredients sector.

ARCHIMED Pharma Services – the Pharma Services team of global private equity healthcare specialist ARCHIMED – announces the sale of portfolio company Suanfarma’s subsidiary SuanNutra to Hamburg-based Carbyne Equity Partners. Carbyne is the investment arm of a renowned German family-owned life sciences group.

Since ARCHIMED’s acquisition of Suanfarma in 2021, SuanNutra has grown into a leading international provider of functional and branded nutraceutical ingredients. Madrid-based Suanfarma, founded in 1993, is held by ARCHIMED’s MED Platform I fund, which raised €1 billion in 2021 and is ranked as a top-decile performer for buyout funds globally for its vintage, according to Preqin data.

“The successful transformation of SuanNutra from a corporate division to a scalable standalone business, highly coveted by strategic investors, is an example of the innovation we use to build market leaders,” says ARCHIMED partner Benoit Varichon. “After years of development, SuanNutra is ready to deliver ongoing value to Carbyne and its life sciences backer.”

“SuanNutra is an impressive nutraceutical ingredients platform with meaningful opportunities ahead, whether that’s through securing dedicated supply chains, broadening its portfolio of clinically validated ingredients or deepening its relevance among an already diverse customer base,” says Dr Markus Petersen, Managing Partner at Carbyne. “We have great confidence in the management team and look forward to building the next chapter together.”

SuanNutra is the third neutraceutical exit engineered by ARCHIMED’s Pharma Services team. Health ingredients companies Natural Origins (formerly HIS) and FYTEXIA were respectively sold in 2017 and 2022 for approximately 2.5 times (or a 400 percent annualized return) and 4 times investment cost. Both Natural Origins and FYTEXIA were held by ARCHIMED’s inaugural MED I fund, which raised €150 million in 2014.

MED I fully liquidated in November, after the sale of its last portfolio company, Citieffe. MED I ranks as the best performing private equity buyout fund on a global level for the 2014 vintage, returning 7.2 times investor’s money for a 59 percent annual return over 11 years, according to Preqin data. All ARCHIMED funds – which have never recorded a loss – are currently top decile performers.