34 ACQUISITIONS IN JULY

July was a bumper month for transactions in terms of numbers and variety, but few were above $1 billion.

I’ve recorded 34 across a wide range of sectors. 11 were in soft drinks, 6 in alcohol and 5 in dairy.

Over 25 countries were involved, with the United States most active by far, followed by France, the United Kingdom, China and Singapore.

Two deals were worth over $1 billion – an Asian sugar acquisition and the European tie up between Birds Eye and Findus. Kirin’s stake in Fraser & Neave came close at $970 million.

Jun	Beer	US Metropoulos private investment fund buys Pabst Brewing Co from Kalmanovitz Charitable Trust	$500m sales
Jul	Food	Atlantic Grupa from Croatia to buy Droga Kolinska of Slovenia from Istrabenz	€382m
	Packaging	Graham Packaging from US completes purchase of China Roots from PCCS Group
	Spirits	William Grant from UK completes purchase of spirits business from C&C of Ireland	€300m
	Sugar	American Sugar Refining to buy EU sugar refining operations from Tate & Lyle of UK	£211m
	Wine	Diego Zamora from Spain buys Ambrosio Velasco from Pernod Ricard of France	€33.1m
	Beer	Czech Pivovary Staropramen absorbs Starbev Czech Republic and Malvil Consulting
	Confectionery	Oryxa Capital investment fund buys Kandia-Excelent in Romania from Kraft of US
	Dairy	US Hain Celestial buys 3 Greek Gods yogurt business	$10m sales
	Fruit juice	Cott from Canada to buy Cliffstar own label producer in United States	$500m
	Packaging	DS Smith from UK to buy Otor in France from Carlyle private equity firm	£206m
	Soft drinks	US NutriPure Beverages to buy Brenlin distributor
	Sugar	Singapore’s Wilmar to buy Sucrogen from CSR of Australia	$1.5bn
	Beer	Carlsberg from Denmark increases stake in Olivaria of Belarus from 30% to 47%
	Soft drinks	US Famous Products buys DNA Beverage and is renamed DNA Brands
	Ingredients	Canada’s Marco Hi-Tech to buy Reducol business from Forbes Medi-Tech	$1.4m
	Packaging	US Sun Capital private investment firm completes purchase of assets from Bemis	$82m
	Soft drinks	US alcohol business Iconic Brands buys Specialty Beverage and Supplement
	Frozen food	Permira private equity group to buy Findus in Italy from Unilever of UK/Netherlands and merge Findus with Birds Eye Iglo of UK	€805m
	Dairy	Olam International from Singapore to buy remaining 82% of NZ Farming Systems Uruguay	NZ$110m
	Fruit juice	US SensoryEffects Flavor Systems buys Juice Pac
	Food	Olam International from Singapore completes purchase of Gilroy Foods & Flavours from ConAgra of US	$250m
	Soft drinks	Sewco International buys 82% of Tycoon iced tea producer in China	HK$390m
	Water	Best Water Technology from Austria buys Culligan International UK
	Wine	Castel from France to buy Barton & Guestier in US from Diageo of UK
	Dairy	Bright Dairy from China to buy 51% of Synlait Milk in New Zealand	$59m
	Soft drinks	Kiev Investment Group from Ukraine buys Rosinka in Ukraine from Suntory of Japan	$50m est
	Water coolers	Eden Springs from Israel to buy Nestlé Waters Direct France from Nestlé of Switzerland
	Soft drinks	Kirin from Japan buys 14.7% of Fraser & Neave in Malaysia from Temasek of Singapore	$970m
	Packaging	US Ball Corporation buys Neuman Aluminum	$128m sales
	Spirits	Henkell from Germany to buy three brands from Beam Global Spirits & Wine of US
	Fruit juice	SAIF Partners private equity group from Hong Kong buys 23% of Huiyuan in China from Danone of France	€200m
	Dairy	Danone from France buys 51% of ProViva in Sweden from Skanemejerier of Sweden
	Dairy	Lactalis from France buys Rachel’s of UK from Dean Foods of US
	Food	US Pierre Foods, Advance Food Company and Advance Brands to merge as Advance Pierre Foods