30 November 2003 - Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst ("HMTF"), through its portfolio company, Premier Foods ("Premier"), today announces the acquisition of the Ambrosia and Brown & Polson brands from Unilever Bestfoods UK for an undisclosed sum. These brands enjoy an extremely strong heritage and substantial consumer awareness in their respective markets.
The Ambrosia and Brown & Polson brands that are being acquired join Premier's existing brands which span a broad range of ambient product categories and include household names such as Loyd Grossman, Crosse & Blackwell, Branston Pickle, Sarson's vinegar, Waistline, Gale's honey, Sun-Pat peanut butter, Hartley's and Typhoo tea. The Ambrosia and Brown & Polson brands generated combined sales of approximately £60 million for the year ended 31 December 2002. The proposed transaction includes the manufacturing facility at Lifton.
Lyndon Lea, a London-based Partner of HMTF, said:
"The acquisition of the Ambrosia and Brown & Polson brands represents a continuation of our buy and build strategy in the ambient food sector. This is our fifth strategic add-on acquisition through Premier and continues our initiative of building a leading branded, category focused food company. These substantial brands will provide Premier with further scale which will allow us to continue to develop our brands and drive product innovation."
Robert Schofield, Chief Executive of Premier, also commented:
"The strategic combination of the Ambrosia and Brown & Polson brands with Premier enhances our branded grocery business and we look forward to continuing to grow and develop these brands. This acquisition follows our successful purchase last year of various ambient brands from Nestlé which have now been fully integrated into Premier. This continues to be an exciting time for Premier and supported by my senior management team, I look forward to welcoming the new employees into Premier."
The acquisition of these brands demonstrates HMTF's sector focused investment strategy in the branded food and media industries. Over the last 3 years, HMTF has generated outstanding results in these sectors through its back-to-basics investment strategy.
Several previously reported transactions evidence this success. For example, one of HMTF's UK-based portfolio companies, Yell, the directories publisher, recently completed a successful £1.2 billion IPO and entered the FTSE 100 index in September. The IPO offer price represents an appreciation of over 2 times the originally invested equity capital after acquiring the company two years earlier. Another HMTF portfolio company acquired less than 3 years ago, Pinnacle Foods, is under contract to be sold at a price that will value the company's equity at 2 times the originally invested capital.
Since its formation in 1989, HMTF has completed or currently has pending more than 400 transactions with a total capital value of approximately $50 billion.