’58 acquisitions in December as 2017 ended with a flurry’

2017 ended with a flurry of substantial food and drink transactions out of 58 in total recorded on the bevblog.net mergers and acquisitions database.

Ten reached $500 million and six of these exceeded $1 billion:

• €6.825 billion for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts private equity to buy Unilever’s spreads business
• $4.9 billion for Campbell Soup to move on Snyder’s-Lance snacks in the US
• $4.84 billion for Thai Beverage to take a 54% stake in Vietnamese brewer Sabeco
• $3.9 billion for Crown Holdings to purchase the Signode packaging business in the US from Carlyle private equity
• $2.3 billion for Switzerland’s Nestlé to gain Canada’s Atrium Innovations in nutrition from Permira private equity and others
• $1.6 billion for Hershey to win Amplify Snack Brands in the US

Among the 58, 13 were in alcohol, five in dairy, five in ingredients, four in nutrition, four in plant-based products and three each in confectionery and frozen food.

25 were within national borders, including 16 in the United States and five in the United Kingdom. 33 were international. The US participated in 30 overall and the UK in ten, followed by Switzerland in five, Canada in four, Ireland in three and South Africa in three.