FMC, Envu complete sale of FMC’s Global Specialty Solutions business

FMC and Envu have completed the sale of FMC's Global Specialty Solutions (GSS) business to Envu.

The companies announced the signing of a definitive acquisition agreement on July 11, 2024, and have now satisfied all necessary conditions and regulatory approvals.

The divestiture of GSS, which includes a line of products that serve a mix of non-crop markets such as golf courses, professional sports stadiums and pest control, is a key step in FMC’s strategic plan to focus solely on innovating products and services for the global crop protection market.

"The successful sale of our GSS business to Envu marks an important milestone for FMC," said Pierre Brondeau, FMC chair and CEO. "This transaction enables us to further sharpen our focus on our core agricultural business while ensuring the GSS business and employees have the right partner in Envu to support their continued growth and success. We look forward to our ongoing collaboration with Envu to ensure a smooth transition and drive innovation in the non-crop market."

As part of the agreement, FMC will work with Envu through the companies' transition period and will remain a contracted supplier of key products and actives to allow for a seamless transition for customers and employees.

“This is a very exciting day for Envu, and we believe for our customers as well,” said Gilles Galliou, Envu CEO. “Now that the deal is closed, we will move quickly to begin integrating the GSS team and exploring ways that we can leverage our collective strengths to deliver more innovation and more value for our customers. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with FMC as a trusted supplier and partner.”

FMC intends to allocate all proceeds from the sale to debt reduction.

FMC Corporation, a global agricultural sciences company, has 5,800 employees at more than 100 sites worldwide. FMC’s crop protection solutions include biologicals, crop nutrition, digital and precision agriculture, and the company works to discover new herbicide, insecticide and fungicide active ingredients, product formulations and technologies.

Envu, founded in 2022, offers services in Professional Pest Management, Forestry, Ornamentals, Golf, Industrial Vegetation Management, Lawn & Landscape, Mosquito Management and Range & Pasture. The Envu portfolio consists of over 180 trusted and well-known brands. The company employs 900 people, operates in 100 countries and has four global innovation hubs.

Guy Cipriano, publisher of our sister publication Golf Course Industry, interviewed Envu CEO Gilles Galliou earlier this year about the sale. Read the full article below:

Envu officially became a standalone entity on Oct. 5, 2022. It took the company less than two years to announce a major acquisition generating significant curiosity within the green industry.

On the evening of July 11, FMC revealed an agreement to sell its Global Specialty Solutions business to Envu for $350 million. The business unit includes non-crop markets served by FMC.  

Envu CEO Gilles Galliou indicated how the acquisition helps fulfill the company’s growth strategy. Envu formed when Bayer divested and sold its Environmental Science Professional business to the London-based private equity firm Cinven for $2.6 billion. FMC started exploring options beginning in November 2023 to make a similar divestment of its Global Specialty Solutions business, which serves the ornamental, golf, lawn and tree care, sports fields and pest control markets.    

“We always said external growth would be something that we are looking for,” Galliou says. “This was purely logical. This is part of our story; this is part of the markets we serve. We know these businesses, we know the markets, we know the customers, and we just felt it was fulfilling our promises.”

The companies are targeting the fourth quarter of 2024 to close the deal, according to Galliou. Until then, Envu and FMC Global Specialty Solutions will continue operating as competing companies. 

Current FMC products will become part of the Envu-branded portfolio following regular post-transaction regulatory processes.

FMC’s nursery and greenhouse product portfolio includes the family of Talstar, Aria and OnyxPro insecticides, as well as Dismiss herbicide and Fame SC fungicide.

“It takes a lot of time to register those labels, so we’ll be starting as soon as the deal closes,” Galliou says. “The objective for us is to have … Talstar and all those products under the Envu umbrella brand. We will retain the product names. The way they are known to your readers will remain, but there will be a change in the look and feel.”

The FMC solutions will complement Envu’s existing portfolio of 13 production ornamentals products labeled for use in nurseries and/or greenhouses. 

“It will strengthen us in making it easier for customers and partners to work with the bigger company Envu will become when we close,” Galliou says. “It will also create a lot of opportunity for innovation. We have some proprietary formulation technology that wouldn’t be shared with competitors, and now that FMC is not going to be a competitor in the future, we will be able to use that proprietary technology with them, and they will do the same for us. Having a strong partner is a good thing, and it creates an opportunity, which is tremendous.”

Innovation represents an Envu corporate theme, and Galliou used the term eight times during a 20-minute conversation discussing the events and benefits of the acquisition. While they will no longer be part of the agriculture business of larger companies, Envu and FMC Global Specialty Solutions still will have agreements with their former companies providing access to active ingredients for use in specialty markets. 

“Combining technology, combining brain strength and powers and combining new AIs that are coming from FMC in the future and from Bayer in the future … that prospect is exciting,” Galliou says. “We want to be able to find solutions that have never been found before.”

In addition to products, Envu and FMC Global Specialty Solutions will be integrating people, some of whom possess decades of industry experience, into one business. Decisions on how the integrated team will look won’t be made until the sale closes. Based in Cary, North Carolina, Envu has more than 270 employees in the U.S. FMC Global Specialty Solutions is based in Philadelphia.   

“I will make sure we build the best possible team for the industry and that we do that respectfully and with the care and attention that our people and the markets we support deserve,” Galliou says.