86 acquisitions in August

Food and drink merger and acquisition activity remained high in August, with 86 transactions recorded on the Zenith Global database.

7 exceeded $500 million, 6 of these reaching $1,000 million or more:

• $4,530 million in US meat for Cargill and Continental Grain to buy Sanderson Farms
• $3,300 million in fruit juice for French private equity firm PAI Partners to acquire 61% of PepsiCo’s North America juice business
• €1,500 million in German distribution for Deutsche Post DHL to take over JF Hillebrand
• £767 million in spirits for UK private equity firm CVC to gain control of Luxembourg’s Stock Spirits
• $1,040 million in ingredients for Germany’s Lanxess to win US based Emerald Kalama Chemical
• $1,000 million in US nutrition for private equity firm Highlander to gain Bettera.

Of the 86 total, 13 were in soft drinks, 8 in packaging, 7 in ingredients, 6 in alcohol, 6 in nutrition, 6 in vertical farming, 4 in bakery and 4 in meat. 3 were in dairy, 3 in meat-free and 2 in dairy-free.

58 were within individual countries, 40 of these in the United States and 7 in the United Kingdom. 28 were across borders, covering 26 countries.

Overall, the United States featured in 51 transactions, the United Kingdom in 14, Germany in 5, Australia in 4 and Singapore in 4, with France, Italy, Mexico and the Netherlands on 3 each.