Birds Eye sold in £1.9bn deal
THE firm behind Birds Eye fish fingers has been sold for £1.9bn, feeding the appetite for mega deals in the City.
Iglo, which also owns the Findus brand in some markets, has been sold to Nomad, a London-listed business set up to make acquisitions that has aspirations to become a consumer goods giant.
The frozen food firm had been owned by private equity house Permira, which bought it for £1.3bn from Unilever in 2006.
It has now fallen into the hands of two colourful international tycoons who yesterday renamed their company Nomad Foods.
Israeli-American billionaire Noam Gottesman, who co-founded the GLG Partners hedge fund, dated actress Lucy Liu and sold his palatial neo- Georgian house in London’s Kensington Palace Gardens to steel king Lakshmi Mittal for £117m in 2008.
His partner Martin Franklin is best known for transforming jar-maker Jarden into a billion pound business, and runs marathons in his spare time.
Nomad made clear yesterday that the purchase is just the first stage on a voyage to build a much bigger empire i n food and consumer goods. The ambition is to become the next Unilever or Nestle.
A spokesman described the Iglo deal as an ‘anchor’ investment that would be the launch pad for acquiring a portfolio of companies and brands. The deal is being funded through a combination of Nomad’s cash, plus equity and the proceeds from a private placement of approximately £503m, as well as debt. Permira will take a 9pc stake in the firm.
The deal is the latest in a string of big deals in the City as firms capitalise on renewed investor confidence. Royal Dutch Shell made a £47bn swoop on BG Group, mobile network Three made a £10bn offer to buy O2 and, in the world of consumer goods, Heinz is merging with Kraft.
The sale is the latest twist in the history of the Birds Eye frozen food empire which was founded more than a century ago by American Clarence Birdseye.
During his travels through the Arctic, he saw that Eskimos used ice, wind and the cold temperature to freeze just- caught fish almost instantly to retain its freshness.
In the 1940s Unilever bought the firm, renaming the holding company Iglo.
Famous for its television adverts fronted by a jovial sea captain promising ‘only the best for the captain’s table’, Iglo is the leading frozen food company in Europe.
It sells its wares across 12 countries with main markets including the UK, Germany, and Italy.
Headquartered in the UK, it has around 2,800 employees across Europe. For the full year 2014, Iglo delivered net sales and adjusted operating profit of £ 1bn and £220m, respectively.
When the transaction closes, Gottesman and Franklin will become non- executive chairmen working closely with the management.
It was already known that Iglo chief executive Elio Leoni Sceti had resigned to take up a job at privately owned Coty cosmetics.
Franklin said: ‘We took a highly disciplined approach to evaluating opportunities for Nomad’s initial investment. During this process, it was abundantly clear that Iglo Group was a natural fit from both a strategic and a financial standpoint. This is a well-run business that has cemented itself as a leader in an attractive, yet highly fragmented sector.’
Gottesman added: ‘What people eat, and how and when they eat, are constantly evolving, making food one of the most resilient yet dynamic categories in the consumer sector. Iglo Group’s strong brands are clear market leaders in frozen food.’