Nestle in exclusive talks with Brake for sale of Davigel
Listed Swiss food giant Nestle, is understood to have entered into exclusive negotiations with UK foodservice distributor Brake, for the sale of Davigel, its frozen food unit, Les Echos reported. Brake, owned by private equity house Bain Capital, pipped the other remaining contender investment fund HIG, to snatch the target for an estimated offered price of EUR 200m, the French-language daily cited several sources as saying.
Not only did Brake offer more than HIG, but it also did not request the vendor credit proposed by Nestle, which amounted to 10%-15% of the total value of the deal, according to the report. Brake is also believed to have agreed to the job guarantees requested by Nestle. The report cited insiders at Davigel as saying that there are several redundancies with Brake, especially for the delivery and headquarters operations.
Davigel operates three production sites in France with 3,100 employees and generates annual revenues of EUR 700m, compared with the sales of EUR 650m for Brake France.
Les Echos