IK acquires Savena in SBO

Viktor Lundvall
05 July 2011

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IK Investment Partners has acquired French food ingredient manufacturer Savena from Azulis Capital and Céréa Capital.

The value of the transaction, which is the fourth buyout of the company, was not disclosed. Final closing of the deal is expected to be completed within four weeks and is subject to relevant regulatory approval. The transaction was sourced through an auction process and IK was introduced to the deal by Easton Corporate Finance. Equity for the transaction was provided by the IK2007 Fund, which raised €1.7bn at final close in October 2007.

IK was attracted to the deal because it believes the company has strong growth potential and good historic growth. The investor also has previous investment experience in the food industry such as Agros Nova, Snacks International and Lithells. IK aims to grow the company organically in France and other markets. Savena aims to double its size over the next five years.

Debt
Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas provided senior debt while Alcentra, Céréa Mezzanine and LFPI supported the transaction with mezzanine financing.

Previous funding
Barclays Private Equity and Abénex Capital backed the first management buyout of Savena, then known as Saveur, in 1999. In February 2005, the company was acquired by Quartus through a secondary buyout. A senior debt package to support the SBO was arranged by Banque Sanpaolo, while €5m of mezzanine debt was underwritten by Capzanine.

Azulis Capital and Céréa Capital acquired Savena in October 2007. The deal was believed to have been valued in the range of €70-90m and each investor held a 39% stake while management owned 18%. BNP Paribas Développement, Natio Vie and Unigrains also co-invested.

A return on investment has not been disclosed.

Company
Savena was established in 1988 and offers ingredient-based culinary solutions for the food industry. The company operates four business areas: taste solutions, meat solutions, nutrition and food service. Headquartered in Bréal-sous-Montfort, the company is also present in Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Italy as well as having operations in Asia and Russia.

The company is expected to generate a turnover of approximately €90m in the current financial year.

People
Dan Soudry, Rémi Buttiaux and Arnaud Bosc worked on the deal for IK Investment Partners. Pierre Jourdain is partner at Azulis Capital and Gilles Sicard is head of Céréa Capital.

Advisers
Equity – Easton Corporate Finance, Philippe Guézenec, Delphine Nicolas (M&A); Lincoln, Aurélien Loszycer (Corporate finance); Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Eduardo Fernandez (Legal); AT Kearney, Jérôme Souïed (Commercial due diligence); Ernst & Young, Daniel Benquis (Financial due diligence).