Warburg's Premier Foods offloads condiments business

Anneken Tappe
30 October 2012

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Premier Foods, a UK-based food products group, has sold its sweet pickle and table sauces division - including the Branston pickle brand - to the Mizkan Group for ТЃ92.5m.

The proceeds of the sale will go towards paying down the company's debt. Premier Foods has recently implemented a disposal strategy to reduce its debt burden; it recently sold its jams and spread business Hartley's to US food manufacturer Hain Celestial for £200m in August.

Once this latest divestments concludes, Premier Foods will have reaped £370m in proceeds from disposals since March 2012, reducing its net debt by 30%.

Previous funding
In 1999, Hicks Muse Tate & Furst (HMTF) backed the buyout of Premier Foods with an offer of 147 pence per share. HMTF was understood to have provided an equity investment amounting to around £171m.

In 2002, HMTF provided further capital to Premier Foods. A year later, the investor provided capital to support the acquisition of Ambrosia and Brown & Polson from Unilever, in a deal reported to be worth around €105m.

In 2004, HMTF floated Premier Foods. At an offer price of 215 pence per share, the business had a market capitalisation of around £527m. HMTF sold shares worth £232m.

In 2009, Warburg Pincus committed £64m to Premier Foods in exchange for a 10.3% stake in the business. The deal was part of a £404m capital raising for the listed firm. Later that year, Warburg Pincus increased its stake in Premier Foods to 17.7%.

Company
The sale includes the Branston sweet pickle, ketchup, relish, salad cream and mayonnaise products, as well as Premier Foods' Bury St Edmunds factory in Suffolk. The sweet pickles and table sauces business generated a £66m turnover and £11.7m EBITDA in 2011, with a trading profit of £8.5m.

People
Michael Clarke is CEO of Premier Foods.