40 acquisitions in May

There were five more food and drink transactions over $1,000 million in May, out of 40 deals recorded on the bevblog.net database.

• $6,600 million for Hillshire Brands to buy Pinnacle Foods in the United States, though this may be overtaken by more recent bid activity for Hillshire.

• $5,000 million for a 51:49 Jacobs Douwe Egberts joint venture between Germany’s Joh A Benckiser and US based Mondelez International.

• $2,500 million for China’s Bright Food Group to buy 56% of Israel’s Tnuva.

• $2,150 million for Japan’s Mizkan to acquire Unilever’s Ragu and Bertolli brands in the United States.

• €1,200 million for US based Clayton, Dubilier & Rice to purchase Germany’s Mauser packaging business.

Of the 40 total, 7 were in soft drinks, 6 in coffee, 5 in packaging, 3 in alcohol and 3 in equipment.

25 countries were affected, led by the United States on 17 deals, the United Kingdom on 7, Australia on 4 and 3 each for Austria, China and India.