Bright Food considers Treasury Wine bid - report
Shanghai-based food producer Bright Food Group is considering buying Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates, the brand that was spun off by beer maker Foster’s Group last month, Bloomberg reported.
Treasure Wine Estates, whose worth has been estimated at approximately A$3.1 billion ($3 billion), owns the Lindemans, Rosemount, Penfolds and Wolf Blass brands, and currently trades on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Treasury Wine was first put on the block in September, reportedly attracting interest from private equity firms including KKR, TPG and Cerberus Capital Management, the latter offering $2.5 billion for full ownership of the business. David Crawford, chairman of Foster's Group, labeled the bid as "totally inadequate."
New of Bright Food's interest comes weeks after a A$9.5 billion ($10 billion) takeover bid for Foster's by US label SABMiller was also rejected for being too low.
Bright Food, which is keen to expand into foreign markets, has a history of valuing up. Earlier this year, it made PAI Partners' shortlist to acquire a 50% stake in yogurt maker Yoplait, making a bid that valued the company at approximately $2.3 billion. Although it was the highest of nine bids PAI received, US-based General Mills ended up acquiring the stake for an enterprise valuation of $2.2 billion.
In December, Bright Food linked up with Blackstone to take over US nutritional supplement retailer GNC Holdings in a transaction estimated to be worth $2.5-3 billion, and in 2009 it bought a controlling stake in Yunnan Yinmore Sugar from Goldman Sachs.
As the Yoplait situation suggests, the Chinese company has not found oveseas M&A easy. In September, reports surfaced that a $3.1 billion bid for Britain's United Biscuits, which Blackstone and PAI Partners acquired for approximately $2.5 billion in 2006. Yet negotiations ended just one month later. And in July, Bright Food lost the battle for CSR's sugar and bioethanol business Sucrogen to Singapore's Wilmar International, which bought the company for A$1.75 billion ($1.88 billion).
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