Kerry Group announced on Wednesday that it has entered negotiations to sell its Sweet Ingredients Portfolio to IRCA for €375m in cash and €125m in vendor loans.

The Sweet Ingredients Portfolio consists of four manufacturing facilities in the US (in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and California), and six facilities across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France. It is expected to have added €405m of revenue and €41m of earnings to Kerry in 2022.

The buyer, IRCA, was itself purchased by private equity company Advent International in April of last year from another private equity giant, Carlyle. Since that purchase, IRCA has bought two other Italian ingredients companies.

The deal will need regulatory approval, and is expected to close in the second half of this year.

Kerry Group noted that this remains a proposed sale and that the company has started communications with the relevant employee representative bodies.

Kerry Group shares were 3.5% higher at €89.90 in the wake of the announcement.

Kerry Group is expected to publish its annual report for 2022 next month.