Lotte Chilsung Beverage Invests 1.61% Stake in Microbiome Specialist Company 'Bifido'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Lotte Chilsung Beverage announced on the 11th that it has strengthened its strategic partnership by acquiring a 1.61% stake in the microbiome specialist company ‘Bifido’.

The stake acquisition involves 66,007 shares of Bifido, amounting to approximately 1.7 billion KRW, and will be conducted through an after-hours block trade.

Bifido is a leading company in microbial research and development, focusing on Bifidobacterium research and product development, expanding its scope to functional strains, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. It owns proprietary brands such as the probiotic brand ‘Jigeuneok Bifidus’ and the cosmetics brand ‘Bifido Lab’ based on Bifidobacterium technology.

Through this equity investment, Lotte Chilsung Beverage aims to discover healthcare functional strains by creating synergy between the plant-based lactic acid bacteria research and product development capabilities of Lotte Central Research Institute and Bifido’s human-derived lactic acid bacteria (Bifido bacterium) research and manufacturing technology. Furthermore, they plan to jointly conduct research on the correlation of the human microbiome and develop functional beverages. In this regard, Lotte Chilsung Beverage signed a business agreement with Bifido in January for ‘Healthcare strain development and joint microbiome research.’

The microbiome field studies the comprehensive genetic information of beneficial and harmful bacteria within the human body and their association with health and disease, attracting global attention. The microbiome industry can be applied across various sectors such as food, therapeutics, and cosmetics, and has been selected as one of the government’s five major green bio industries in South Korea.

A Lotte Chilsung Beverage official stated, “Through this investment in Bifido, we will strengthen our strategic partnership and do our best to create synergy in exclusive microbiome materials and differentiated functional beverage development in the future.”