Potential PE target Ingham Chicken goes on the block

The company was founded in 1918 and Ingham and his late brother Jack inherited it from their father in 1953. It employs 9,000 people in Australia and New Zealand, generating annual revenues of A$2.1 billion ($2.14 billion).

Private equity and strategic investors have acquired Australia and New Zealand food brands in the last few years with a view to boosting exports into Asia.

Last year, Affinity Equity Partners bought Tegal Foods, a New Zealand-based chicken producer and distributor, from Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) for an estimated NZ$600 million ($482.3 million). The private equity firm followed up with the acquisition of deli meats producer Primo Smallgoods in a deal that valued the target at some A$740 million. Earlier still, in 2009, Terra Firma bought the Packer family's stake in beef producer Consolidation Pastoral Company.

In the fruit and vegetable space, earlier this year Wolseley Private Equity exited Freshmax, a fruit and vegetable business that covers Australia and New Zealand, to Maui Capital.

Several of the prospective investors in Freshmax had already lost out on two other deals in the fruit and vegetable space as Paine & Partners won the race for a 50% stake in Costa Group, Australia's largest fruit and vegetable producer, and Germany's BayWa completed the acquisition of New Zealand fresh produce specialist Turners & Growers.

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• Topics
• Consumer
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Australia
• Consumer
• buyout
• Affinity Equity Partners
• Agriculture