Continental Foods negotiations halted

Investment firm CVC has decided not to sell Continental Foods for the time being. Negotiations with an interested buyer for Devos Lemmens’ parent company fell through in the end.

Different expectations

Spanish GB Foods was revealed as the prime candidate to acquire Continental Foods in October and CVC hoped to get about 1 billion euro. However, the negotiations are over: both companies did not see eye to eye regarding the acquisition fee and according to De Tijd, GB Foods (part of Agrolimen in Catalunya) is currently impacted by Spain’s doubtful political situation.

Geographically, GB would have benefited a lot from the acquisition, because both companies are very complementary geographically. The Spanish company is mainly active in Spain, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands and thirty countries in Africa and the Middle East. Continental Foods is active in France, Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia.

CVC had also hoped to make quick gains, because a billion euro asking price was more than twice as much as it paid in 2013 to acquire it itself. Ever since 2013, it restructured the company, helping the operating profit grow from 50 to 81 million euro (at level turnover).