Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Tatsuo Yasunaga) and Kirin Holdings Company, Limited ("Kirin", Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Yoshinori Isozaki) will subscribe to approximately 80% (approximately 40% for each company) of the shares of the holding company of Thorne Research, Inc. ("Thorne", Head Office: New York, New York and Charleston, South Carolina, USA) through a third-party allotment of newly issued shares.*
* Closing is scheduled for around October 2018.

Thorne has a strong business base as a developer, manufacturer and supplier of high-quality supplements backed by extensive scientific evidence. It sells its products primarily through medical professionals, and has formed a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in the U.S., one of the world's leading general hospitals with regard to supplement use and research. In recent years, Thorne has been developing a system for providing solutions in the area of personalized nutrition, which provides nutrition tailored for individuals, through testing services using home test kits.

Mitsui, in its Medium-term Management Plan, has identified Nutrition & Agriculture as a new growth area, and in the growing human nutrition field, it is developing a business model which helps consumers obtain health insight and live a healthier life through providing a personalized solution backed by scientific evidences.

The Kirin Group, in its "New Kirin Group Vision 2021", states that it aims to "Co-achieve sustainable growth with our societies by realizing value creation, addressing social issues and understanding consumer expectations via the core businesses* of the Kirin group."
* alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic beverages, pharmaceuticals and bio-chemicals

Mitsui and Kirin, through this joint investment, will strengthen their initiatives in the field of health, such as preventive and daily health management, which are becoming increasingly important societal issues also in the U.S. and Japan.
After the joint investment, Mitsui and Kirin will leverage the synergy with Mitsui's wide-ranging business assets and the Kirin Group's functional foods to enhance the corporate value of Thorne's U.S. business, and further expand Thorne's business into other markets, such as Japan, through joint cooperation.

Profile of Thorne

High-quality supplements and Home test kits

Thorne's Plant