Ardian buys natural ingredients specialist Frulact

Alessia Argentieri
16 January 2020

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Ardian has acquired Portugal-based Frulact, a producer of natural fruit-based speciality ingredients for the food industry, from the founding Miranda family.

The deal gives the company an enterprise value of around €150m, according to press reports.

Unquote understands that the GP deployed capital from Ardian LBO VII for this transaction. The fund was launched in December 2018 with a €6bn target and a €6.5bn hard-cap. It targets European companies with enterprise values in the €175m-1.5bn range and expects to make around 20 investments.

The management team, led by led CEO Duarte Faria, will continue to lead the company. In addition, João Miranda will maintain his current role of non-executive chair.

Ardian intends to support the company's expansion, accelerate its growth and create a platform in the natural food ingredients sector via additional acquisitions in adjacent niches and ingredients.

Company
Established in 1987 and headquartered in Maia, near Porto, Frulact specialises in the production of natural fruit-based and plant-based ingredients for dairy, ice-cream, desserts, beverages and food flavours.

Frulact employs 750 people across nine production facilities located in Europe, Africa and North America, and sells its products in 40 countries worldwide, generating revenues of around €115m.

People
Ardian – Philippe Poletti (head of Ardian France); Gonzalo Fernandez-Albiñana (head of Ardian Buyout Spain).
Frulact – João Miranda (non-executive president); Duarte Faria (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Optimal Investments (corporate finance).