Martine Specialites deal in the works

Cerea Capital and Banexi Capital Partenaires have offered UK-based Premier Foods EUR50m for its French frozen patisserie business Martine Specialites.

The offer has been deemed acceptable and the company is currently discussing the offer with employees. The deal would include the Sofrapain and Le Pain Croustillant (LPC) bakery businesses.

Martine, which is is based in Valade, has 385 employees and supplies French and UK businesses with frozen pastries. In the nine months running up to December 31st, the company made net sales of EUR34.4m with pre-tax profits of EUR4.4m.

Premier Foods would use the money generated from the sale to reduce its current EUR1.97bn debt and help the company refocus its interests to the UK and Irish businesses. Premier's bankers have agrees to postpone their covenant tests till the end of March for a fee of £4.9m.

The move would allow talks with lenders to continue into the first quarter of this year. Premier Foods has around 18,000 employees in 70 sites based in the UK and Ireland.

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