Solus Advanced Materials’ sale of Solus BioTech to Croda Overseas Holdings Limited

Solus Advanced Materials, whose largest shareholder is Skylake Equity Partners, entered into a share purchase agreement with Croda Overseas Holdings Limited on February 3, 2023, through which Solus Advances Materials sold its 100% shareholding in its subsidiary Solus BioTech for approximately KRW 350 billion. Solus BioTech is a specialized biomaterials company founded in October 2021 as a spin-off from Solus Advanced Materials, and has been a prominent player in the domestic and global ceramides market since its incorporation, making this transaction a fierce bidding war between leading global players in the industry from the bidding stage.

For this transaction, Lee & Ko provided wide-ranging legal services such as the seller due diligence, response to the purchaser due diligence response and negotiation and execution of the main contract and the transition support contract. Furthermore, after a month-long negotiation with the first-priority preferred bidder, Lee & Ko advised on back-to-back negotiations with the second-priority preferred bidder within a compact timeline and execution of the contract, and diligently supported the deal progress so that the negotiation and execution of the share purchase agreement would proceed in the most expeditious manner.