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After this Monday’s announcement that it had completed the purchase of U.K. frozen-food producer Iglo Foods Holdings for $2.9 billion, Nomad Holdings is reportedly in talks with another major frozen-food manufacturer Findus Group.
Before the purchase Nomad Holdings Ltd. did not have a clear set of operations. It is an acquisition and investment firm, which was created to find and acquire another companies and businesses and help them grow. After Iglo Foods’ transaction, the company changed its name to Nomad Foods Limited.
Iglo Foods is one of the largest players in the frozen-food business. It is the owner of Findus brand in Italy, Birds Eye and Iglo brands in the U.K., France, Germany, Portugal, Hungary and Russia among others.
Iglo is also the largest company of its type in Europe and the second largest frozen-food producer globally (Canada-based McCain Foods being the largest) with a 3.3 percent market share.
For last year, Iglo Foods had $1.68 billion worth of sales worldwide and earnings before EBITDA of nearly $345 million. The company was bought by Nomad from Permira Advisers LLP in April when an initial agreement was reached.
Back then, Permira agreed to sell the company for $2.9 billion (2.6 billion euros) and retain 9 percent of the gains.
Nomad Holdings’ new chief executive Stefan Descheemaeker said Monday that his company had a “strategic plan” to help it enter the European frozen-food business by taking advantage of Iglo’s consolidated brands, market share and “attractive growth margin profile.”
And multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman seemed interested in the deal, as well, since his company Pershing Square announced a huge investment into Nomad Holdings Tuesday. Pershing currently holds a 21.7 percent stake in the company.
Nomad’s CEO also announced Monday that there were negotiations going on with another major frozen-food manufacturer Findus Group but the outcome was uncertain. Clearly, Nomad wants to combine Iglo brands with Findus’ portofolio to generate a frozen-food giant that would be hard to resist to any competitors, at least in Europe.
According an announcement released Tuesday, Nomad Foods is interested only in Findus’ Nordic and Southern European businesses. It doesn’t want to acquire its Young’s Seafood Ltd. brand, which delivers frozen fish and seafood products to U.K. customers. The approximate purchase offer revolves around 800 million euros ($896 million).
Findus’ operations in northern Europe involve Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, while those in the south cover Belgium, Spain and France.
The company told investors Thursday that the negotiations would not necessarily lead to a final transaction mainly because regulatory issues. But it pledged that would continue to focus on business as usual despite the ongoing negotiations.
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