Opinion
36 acquisitions in January/February 2010
2010 opened with a succession of huge food and drink transactions. Hot on the heels of Kraft buying Cadbury for £11.9bn came Coca-Cola acquiring the North American operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises for $12.6bn, and PepsiCo completing the purchase of its top two bottlers.
That wasn’t all. Nestlé bought Kraft’s frozen pizza business for $3.7bn, Heineken targeted Femsa in a €3.8bn deal, and Entremont agreed to merge with Sodiaal.
12 of the 36 deals recorded for January and February were in soft drinks, of which 6 were water, 9 were in alcohol (of which, 5 were beer) and 8 were in dairy. More than 25 countries were involved, the most active being the US, France, UK and China.
January 2010
- Soft drinks – China Marine buys 80% of Shishi Xianghe in China ($27.8m).
- Hot drinks – Italy’s Lavazza buys Ercom (€25m sales).
- Beer – Damm from Spain buys former Drink In factory in Portugal (€15.5m).
- Water coolers – Eden Springs from Israel buys Hydropure of UK.
- Food – Nestlé from Switzerland to buy Kraft frozen pizza business in US and Canada ($3.7bn).
- Fruit juice – Saudi Arabia’s Jadwa investment fund buys substantial stake in Gulf Union Foods Company.
- Beer – Philippines’ San Miguel to buy 49% of Top Frontier.
- Dairy – Fonterra of New Zealand to buy 51% of Saudi New Zealand Dairy Products Co from Saudi Dairy & Foodstuff Co ($33m).
- Beer – Heineken from Netherlands to buy Femsa of Mexico, with Femsa gaining 20% stake in Heineken (€3.8bn).
- Food – Mizkan from Japan buys World Harbors Sauces of US.
- Dairy – France’s Entremont to merge with Sodiaal (€4.5bn sales).
- Dairy – Wexford Milk Producers of Ireland to buy 50% of Wexford Creamery from Dairy Crest of UK, increasing stake to 70% (€9m).
- Confectionery – Kraft from US to buy Cadbury of UK (£11.9bn).
- Soft drinks – UK Nichols buys Ben Shaws dispense business from Sunnyland of Belgium.
- Bottled water – France’s Crédit Agricole bank buys over 33% of St Amand (€100m sales).
- Flavours – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts private equity firm from US buys significant minority in Rudolf Wild of Germany.
- Cheese – Four dairy cooperatives in Northeastern France to merge.
- Cider – Crispin Cider buys Fox Barrel Cider.
February 2010
- Dairy – Arla Foods and North Milk Co-operative to sell Claymore Dairies to management team.
- Cheese – Lactalis from France buys Forlasa of Spain.
- Soft drinks – Pepsi Bottling Group to buy Pepsi-Cola drinks Bottling of Yuba City.
- Ice cream – Swedish businessman Anders Müntzing to buy Diplom-Is of Sweden from Tine of Norway.
- Water filtration – Catterton private equity firm buys Sun Water Systems.
- Bottled water – Nestlé from Switzerland buys 70% stake in Yunnan Dashan of China.
- Confectionery – Raisio from Finland to buy Glisten in UK (£19.8m).
- Dairy – China’s Rodobo completes purchase of three Beixue dairies.
- Beer – Asia Pacific Breweries completes purchase of 68% interest in Multi Bintang Indonesia and 87% interest in Grande Brasserie de Nouvelle Caledonie from Heineken of Netherlands.
- Beer – Heineken from Netherlands completes purchase of two Indian operations and Bintang brand from Asia Pacific Breweries.
- Malt – Axéréal from France buys malt business from Greencore of Ireland (€116m).
- Bottled water – SABMiller from South Africa buys Rwenzori of Uganda.
- Spirits – Mosaiq from Canada to buy Lemon Hart brand nights from Pernod Ricard of France.
- Wine/spirits – Altia to buy Danish and Swedish brands and facilities from Pernod Ricard of France (€82m).
- Bottled water – DS Waters buys Yosemite Waters.
- Soft drinks – Coca-Cola Enterprises to buy Norway and Sweden operations of Coca-Cola Company ($822m).
- Soft drinks – Coca-Cola Company to buy North American operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises ($12.6bn).
- Spirits – Diageo from UK to increase stake from 49% to 53% of Quanxing in China ($21m).
Source: BevBlog
About the author
Richard Hall is chairman of Zenith International.
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