Century Seeds changes hands

French company, Groupe Limagrain, through its Indian subsidiary, has acquired India’s Century Seeds Private Limited, a vegetable seed firm, in an all-cash deal. The company has not disclosed the amount.

This is Groupe Limagrain’s second acquisition in India in 12 months.

The Century Seeds buy-out considerably strengthens Limagrain’s vegetable seeds market presence in India, and would immediately double the size of the new entity, representing almost 5 per cent of the vegetable seeds market, with sales of almost 8 million euro.

Limagrain, with revenues of $1.9 billion, focuses on field and vegetable seeds and cereal products. The group has about 7,000 employees, including 1,400 researchers.

The privately-held Century Seeds owns more than ten species, including cauliflower, pepper, cabbage, tomato and vegetables mainly consumed in Asia. It has extensive production and sales networks in India, particularly in the north.

Recently, Groupe Limagrain acquired 61.01 per cent stake in BISCO Bio Sciences, a company engaged in the corn seed market.

In 2009, Limagrain acquired Atash Seed, a unit of biotech firm Avasthagen, specialising in field crop technologies for rice, wheat and maize.