Paul Gheysens invests in ‘super fuel’ ketones

After his investments in real estate, horses, media and football, Ghelamco owner Paul Gheysens also appears to be active in the medical world. The businessman is a shareholder in the British company TdeltaS, the inventor of the popular dietary supplement ketones. “I bought part of it,” Gheysens confirms to De Tijd. ‘That’s a global company.’

Ketones are natural substances that the liver produces when our body no longer ingests carbohydrates and mainly starts to burn fats. Twenty years ago, the US military launched the search for a way to artificially produce ketones. The product was intended to serve as a superfuel to give soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq more resistance and longer endurance.

Australian researcher Kieran Clarke, who has been researching ketones at the University of Oxford since the 1990s, received a grant from the US army for this. Her research led to the development of the ‘ester’ DeltaG, which made it possible to process ketones in sports drinks. Clarke incorporated her patented invention into the spin-off TdeltaS in 2005.

Medical Intelligence Hub, a company that Paul Gheysens and his son Michael founded in 2019, owns 11 percent of TdeltaS, according to the annual accounts. British documents show that Paul Gheysens has been one of the three directors of TdeltaS, which is registered with an accountant in Oxfordshire, since 2019. The other directors are (now emeritus) Professor Clarke, who owns 25 to 50 percent of the company, and a certain Anthony Dolan. “I am the only director who is not a scientist,” Gheysens says proudly.

Ketones, which are not considered a banned substance, are today especially popular in endurance sports. The drug was introduced to some British athletes during the 2012 London Olympics. In 2019, the Jumbo-Visma cycling team acknowledged that its riders use ketones. After the time trial in the latest Tour of Italy, Remco Evenepoel swallowed a bottle of Ketone Aid, a competitor of TdeltaS. Antwerp FC, Gheysens’ football club, also looked at the product. ‘We tested it and it gives footballers 5 to 6 percent more endurance. But we don’t give it to them,” says Gheysens.

Today, ketones have made their breakthrough among the general public, especially in the US, where they are known as sports nutrition. TdeltaS worked for a long time with the well-known Californian ketone producer HVMN (Health Via Modern Nutrition), which received the support of many well-known investors from Silicon Valley. But according to the company website, HVMN lost its license to distribute TdeltaS products in 2020.

In the same year, the British company launched an American subsidiary to develop products for the US. ‘It is a huge product that is still performing below its potential,’ says Gheysens. ‘Commercialization is not yet running at full speed. We are in very far-reaching negotiations with a world name for this.’ For the time being, TdeltaS doesn’t seem to be making any progress. In the latest financial year to mid-2022, the company recorded a net loss of £380,000. Shareholders’ equity then amounted to £7.8 million.

When asked how Gheysens got into the ketone business, the businessman answers: “I know a lot of people in London.” His real estate company Ghelamco is currently building The Arc project in the British capital. The businessman himself says he does not take ketones. “You have to do a lot of exercises,” he says.