Kerry, whose ingredients reach more than a billion people around the world, said the sale would help to refine its core taste and nutrition business, which it has recently boosted with a number of more technology focused acquisitions.

Advent, which will buy the sweet and cereal manufacturing unit through its IRCA portfolio company, said it expected to create a global leader in semi-finished food ingredients with about 1 billion euros in revenue by combining it with IRCA's exisiting portfolio.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by David Goodman)