Bright Food takes over Israeli supplier
Mainland dairy and consumer products group Bright Food is paying about US$960 million for a majority stake in Israel's Tnuva Food Industries.
Mainland dairy and consumer products group Bright Food is paying about US$960 million for a majority stake in Israel's Tnuva Food Industries.
The transaction valued Tnuva at about US$2.5 billion, including debt, a source said.
Bright Food spokesman Pan Jianjun said yesterday it had reached a preliminary agreement to acquire private equity firm Apax Partners' 56 per cent stake in Tnuva. He said the price had yet to be decided and declined to comment further.
Torsten Stocker, a partner at consulting firm AT Kearney, said the deal would give Bright Food a broader range of high-quality products to import into the mainland.
"You are also building a portfolio of brands in different markets," Stocker said, adding he expected more acquisitions to follow.
Mainland companies from Bright Food to pork producer WH Group have been making acquisitions overseas as rising incomes spur demand for consumer goods while a series of food-safety scandals has hurt confidence in domestic brands.
Bright Food bought a 60 per cent stake in British cereal maker Weetabix in 2012.
Tnuva owns seven of the 10 best-known food brands in Israel's supermarkets, according to Apax's website.
It says Tnuva was formed more than 80 years ago as an agricultural cooperative of 620 farming communities, which were also the company's suppliers of raw milk and produce. The cooperative sold the stake in Tnuva to Apax in 2007 at a price that valued the company at US$1.03 billion.
Bright Food, which has retail outlets across the mainland, also operates tea, dairy and rice farms. It was established in 2006.
