54 acquisitions in February

With 54 food and drink transactions recorded in the bevblog.net food and drink mergers and acquisitions database for February, the rate of deal making was as busy as ever.

The character of investment, however, is changing. 8 of the 54 were funding rounds.

The scale of activity was also down for the month. Unusually, there were no trades above $500 million and just 2 over $250 million, both in fresh produce:

• $361 million for Fresh Del Monte Produce to buy Mann Packing in the United States

• €242 million for Ireland’s Total Produce to take a 45% stake in US based Dole.

Of the 54 total, 10 were soft drinks, 7 in dairy, 5 in alcohol, 5 in ingredients, 4 in fresh produce, 4 in packaging and 3 in bakery.

28 were inside national borders, 17 of these in the United States and 7 in the United Kingdom.

24 countries were involved overall, with the United States featuring in 26 of the 54, the United Kingdom in 11, Germany in 4 and Denmark, France, Netherlands and Switzerland each in 3.