Company chairman Utz-Hellmuth Felcht said: "We are currently drawing up a value-enhancing exit strategy for these operations. Thorough internal preparations will be carried out in the coming months and we plan to approach potential investors in the first half of next year."
The unit, which had a turnover of €527 million in 2003, a fraction of the group's overall revenues of €11.4 billion last year, comprises the Flavors & Fruit systems and Texturants systems segments.
Degussa is also a key player in health ingredients, such as phospholipids and amino acids, and one of the main European suppliers along with DSM of creatine, all sold under the Bioactives unit, recently absorbed into the Texturant arm.
However Felcht said these operations "cannot attain global market leadership on their own, mainly because of the ongoing consolidation of the food industry".
Analysts have previously estimated that the company can obtain a purchase price of €550-650 million for the business.
All divisions posted considerably higher EBIT than in the third quarter of the previous year, according to the group, with a cost-cutting drive playing a key role in the improvement.
