Acquisitions in the food sector: Portobello Capital and Ebro Foods

23/03/2016
Diego Gutiérrez
Acquisitions in the food sector: Portobello Capital and Ebro Foods
Portobello Capital is once again interested in the food sector and buys the Murcian company Ramón Sabater. In addition, Ebro Food, which is pursuing a policy of expansion through acquisitions, has bought the French company Celnat.

Portobello buys Murciana Ramón Sabater

The investment fund Portobello Capital has bought the spice processing company Ramón Sabater, company with headquarters in Murcia and offices in Miami (USA) and Qingdao (China).

 

The fund made an offer of between €110M and €125M for 100% of the shareholding and a proportional part for 80%, which was in the end the part that the family sold to the fund.

 

This purchase will provide the necessary liquidity to be able to carry out the expansion process of the company.
The company will maintain its management team, headed by its CEO, José Sabater.

 

On the other hand, Portobello Capital partner, Luis Peñarrocha, ha afirmado que en la gestora están «muy satisfechos» con esta inversión, ya que creen «firmemente» en el potencial de Ramón Sabater.
Portobello has won over the Sabater family with its a tenfold increase in the company's ebidta, which had a turnover in 2013 of 47.5 million euros, according to the Murciaeconomy ranking.

 

In recent months Portobello has completed other major operations in the food sector, such as the purchase of Ian to Viscofan and the purchase of Iberconsa, frozen seafood products.

 

Ebro Foods, acquisitions to expand geographically and open up to new markets in the food sector

Ebro Foods, through Alimentation Santé, has bought for €25.5M the French company Celnata pioneer in the field of organic food and one of France's leading manufacturers of organic cereals,

The Celle family, founder and owner of the company, will continue to lead Celnat, preserving and reinforcing its identity, culture and values 100% bío.

For Celnat, joining Ebro Foods will accelerate its growth not only in France but also internationally, thanks to the Group's strong global presence.

For Ebro Foods, the acquisition of Celnat will enable it to strengthen its position in the health sector, give greater importance to the role that the organic category will play within the group and strategically position itself within the framework of the new food trends.

 

Ebro Food had already announced recently that it would pursue a policy of growth through mergers and acquisitions. Thus, Ebro Foods bought the US speciality rice business RiceSelect for €40m and the French group Roland Monterrat for €44.25m, which allowed it to enter the fresh food segment.

 

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