Spanish food company wants to acquire Continental Foods

Spanish food company GB Foods wants to bid for Belgian Continental Foods next week. Two other companies are allegedly interested in the company which owns Devos Lemmens, Aiki and Royco.

1 billion euro

If GB Foods acquires Continental Foods, then it would be a good geographical match: the Spanish company is present in Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Russia and thirty other countries in Africa and the Middle East. Continental Foods is active in France, Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia.

Both companies have a rather similar product range, mainly filled with sauces, soup and prepared meals. GB Foods’ turnover is much larger than Continental Foods’ turnover, with 1 billion euro and 400 million euro turnover respectively.

According to De Tijd, not only GB Foods is interested, because two others have indicated an interest, but it is not clear who the other companies are at this point.

Investment fund CVC owns Continental Foods, but has put it up for sale in April. It hopes to get at least 1 billion euro, more than double its 400 million euro acquisition fee in 2013. Ever since it acquired Continental Foods, its structure was altered, growing its operational profit from 50 to 81 million euro at identical turnover levels.