EQT exits Singapore's Classic Fine Foods to German retail group

There will be an additional earn-out of up to $38 million depending on the company's EBITDA performance from 2015 to 2017, a statement added.

Set up in 1999, CFF partners with food producers in Europe to supply food to the majority of five-star hotels and high-end restaurants across 12 markets and 25 cities, in 14 countries in Asia and the Middle East.

EQT bought the company from the Vestey Group in January 2011 via its EQT Greater China II fund. CCF has since grown organically on average at 15% per year. Currently the company employs about 800 people, and generates annual sales of more than $200 million.

"Classic Fine Foods has developed enormously during EQT's ownership, entering new product categories, deepening and broadening its relationships with key suppliers, entering new markets such as China, and institutionalizing best practices in areas including procurement," Simon Griffiths, a partner at EQT Partners and investment advisor to EQT Greater China II, said in a statement.

Metro operates around 2,200 stores in 30 countries and has a headcount of around 250,000 employees. For Metro the deal is intended to strengthen the firm's wholesale subsidiary Metro Cash & Carry and aid its expansion into high-growth Asian food service distribution markets.

EQT is a global private equity firm headquartered in Sweden. Its EQT Greater China II buyout fund reached a final close of $545 million in 2006. Recent exits include Taiwanese cable TV operator Gala Television Corp., which it sold to the management of local conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, management of local conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, in August last year.

In April, Laobaixing Pharmacy Chain (LBX Pharmacy), a Chinese retail pharmacy chain backed out of fund II, raised RMB1.01 billion ($163 million) through its IPO, selling 67 million new shares at RMB16.41 apiece.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Exits
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Exit
• buyout
• China
• EQT Partners
• Consumer