Food industry M&A deals in March 2019 total $2.25bn globally

Total food industry M&A deals in March 2019 worth $2.25bn were announced globally, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

The value marked a decrease of 29.8% over the previous month and a drop of 30.02% when compared with the last 12-month average, which stood at $3.21bn.

Comparing deals value in different regions of the globe, North America held the top position, with total announced deals in the period worth $1.45bn. At the country level, the US topped the list in terms of deal value at $1.45bn.

In terms of volumes, Europe emerged as the top region for food industry M&A deals globally, followed by North America and then Asia-Pacific.

The top country in terms of M&A deals activity in March 2019 was the US with seven deals, followed by Italy with four and Canada with four.

In 2019, as of the end of March 2019, food M&A deals worth $6.17bn were announced globally, marking a decrease of 31.9% year on year.

Food industry M&A deals in March 2019: Top deals

The top five food industry M&A deals accounted for 99.3% of the overall value during March 2019.

The combined value of the top five food industry M&A deals stood at $2.23bn, against the overall value of $2.25bn recorded for the month. The top announced food industry M&A deal tracked by GlobalData in March 2019 was Ferrero International’s $1.3bn asset transaction with Kellogg.

In second place was the $588m acquisition of Westland Co-operative Dairy by Hongkong Jingang Trade Holding Co and in third place was Wilmar International’s $180m acquisition of FPW Singapore Holdings.

The $150m acquisition of Iowa Premium Beef by National Beef Packing and Alliance Group’s acquisition of Meateor Foods for $15m held fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

This analysis considers only announced and completed deals from the GlobalData financial deals database and excludes all terminated and rumoured deals. Country and industry are defined according to the headquarters and dominant industry of the target firm. The term ‘acquisition’ refers to both completed deals and those in the bidding stage.

GlobalData tracks real-time data concerning all merger and acquisition, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world from thousands of company websites and other reliable sources.

More in-depth reports and analysis on all reported deals are available for subscribers to GlobalData’s deals database.