Blackstone and PAI exit United Biscuits in £2bn deal

Following the deal, Yildiz will look to continue to pursue United Biscuit's international expansion strategy undertaken under its private equity owners. Under the stewardship of Blackstone and PAI, the company bolted on companies based in India, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

According to the Financial Times, Kellogg's and Burton's Biscuits were also said to have been in the running to acquire United Biscuits.

Blackstone and PAI oversaw the division of the business into the KP Snacks and United Biscuits businesses, eventually selling KP to Intersnack in December 2012 for around £500m. The business also created two main brands within United Biscuits, McVitie's for sweet products and Jacobs for savoury products.

In 2010, Blackstone and PAI started exploring exit options for the company, with Campbell's Soup said to have been interested in acquiring the biscuit manufacturing operations for around £1.5bn.

Previous funding
The GPs acquired United Biscuits in a £1.6bn secondary buyout from Cinven and MidOcean in 2006. The deal generated 2.2x returns for the vendors.

Company
Headquartered in Hayes, Middlesex, United Biscuits is a manufacturer of biscuits and owner of the McVitie's, Jaffa Cakes, Twiglets and Penguin brands. The company owns 16 manufacturing facilities, of which seven are UK-based.

People
Lionel Assant is head of private equity at Blackstone. Frédéric Stévenin is a partner at PAI Partners. Martin Glenn is CEO of United Biscuits.

Advisers
Vendor - Goldman Sachs (Corporate finance); JP Morgan (Corporate finance).
Company - Centerview Partners (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Exits
• Consumer
• United Kingdom
• Blackstone Group
• PAI Partners
• Unq2015Jan