Hendrix Genetics have reached an agreement in principle for the purchase of 100 percent stake of Joice and Hill Poultry Ltd.

Currently Hendrix Genetics via its affiliate Institut de Sélection Animale B.V. already holds 40 percent of Joice and Hill.

Completion of the envisaged transaction is expected by January 2010 and is subject to various customary consents.

Joice and Hill Poultry Ltd operates a 10 million chick hatchery at Eye, Peterborough. Hatching eggs are exclusively produced on company farms in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

Hendrix Genetics B.V. is a global, multi-species, animal genetics company. The company has around 1,000 employees with a further 500 working in joint ventures.