(Reuters) – Malteries Soufflet, a subsidiary of the French agricultural cooperative InVivo, announced on Tuesday that it had made a non-binding indicative offer to acquire the Australian United Malt Group, for an amount of nearly a billion dollars, which would make him the world’s leading producer of malt.
The acquisition of 100% of United Malt would double the size of activities in malt, the main ingredient in the manufacture of beer, Thierry Blandinières, president of Malteries Soufflet and managing director of InVivo, told Reuters.
In 2021, when Malteries Soufflet was acquired, InVivo and its partners Crédit Agricole, KKR and Bpifrance in the subsidiary set themselves five years to achieve this objective.
“We accelerated so we find ourselves in less than two years to carry out the five-year plan”, declared Thierry Blandinières.
At the beginning of the year, Malteries Soufflet signed an agreement to take over the Belgian malting company Malterie du Château, one of the oldest producers in the world.
United Malt’s takeover offer, set at 5 Australian dollars (3.09 euros) per share, represents a premium of 45.3% compared to the closing price of the action on Friday.
The Australian group’s price soared nearly 35% on Tuesday, its biggest single-session rise. Trading was halted on Monday.
InVivo is also active in distribution and is the majority shareholder of Teract, which has signed an exclusivity agreement with Casino with a view to creating a new entity in distribution activities in France.
Thierry Blandinières told Reuters on this occasion of his medium-term desire to take control of the French distribution group.
United Malt is the world’s fourth largest commercial malt producer for brewers, distillers and food companies. The company has processing plants in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom as well as an international distribution unit.
(Report Harish Sridharan in Bangalore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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