Tate & Lyle Forms Joint Venture With Leading Food Systems Business In China

Tate & Lyle PLC (“Tate & Lyle”), a leading global provider of speciality food ingredients and solutions, announces that it has signed an agreement with Xuzhou Yitong Food Industry Co., Ltd (“Yitong”) to form a Sino-Foreign Joint Venture (“Tate & Lyle Howbetter”) through the acquisition of a 51 % equity interest in Jiangsu Howbetter Food Co., Ltd (“Howbetter”), a leading Food Systems business in the People’s Republic of China.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tate & Lyle will acquire 22 % of its equity interest from Yitong and the balance of 29 % from S.B International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Europe-based global food business (which has been a shareholder in Howbetter since 2009). Tate & Lyle also has an option to acquire Yitong’s remaining 49 % equity interest in Howbetter at a later stage. The transaction is subject to governmental approval which is expected in the autumn.

Howbetter provides stabilizer systems and ingredient blends for customers across China mainly in the dairy and beverage categories. It operates from a blending facility in Suqian and has application laboratories in the nearby city of Xuzhou, both in Jiangsu Province. Howbetter was one of the first domestic food blending businesses in China to be awarded a license to operate under new regulations put in place in 2010.

For more information contact Tate & Lyle PLC:

Mathew Wootton
Group VP, Investor Relations 
t:+44 (0)20 7257 2110 
m:+44 (0)7500 100 320 
e: mathew.wootton@tateandlyle.com