Birds Eye May Acquire Unilever Food Unit

Birds Eye Iglo is expected to acquire Unilever’s Italian frozen food unit, Findus Italy, in a deal worth €800m ($1bn).

The purchase is being financed with about €500m ($643m) of debt, according to financialtimes.com.

Birds Eye saw off competition from Lion Capital’s Findus Group.

Permira, which bought Birds Eye from Unilever for €1.7bn ($2.1bn) four years ago, is providing €300m ($386m) of equity.

The Italian business is the only part of Unilever’s European frozen food operations that it kept when it sold Birds Eye and Iglo to Permira in 2006.