47 acquisitions in December

December 2019 was a slower month for food and drink industry transactions, with 47 recorded on the bevblog.net mergers and acquisitions database.

Their scale, however, was very substantial, with 5 involving sums greater than $500 million including 2 above $5,000 million. The biggest were:

• $26,200 million in ingredients for the US-based merger of IFF with DuPont’s Nutrition & Biosciences business

• €7,000 million sales in coffee for the merger of US-based Peet’s Coffee & Tea with Dutch-based Jacobs Douwe Egberts to form JDE Peet’s

• $4,000 million for UK-based Froneri to buy Swiss-based Nestlé’s ice cream business

• $1,100 million in water coolers for Culligan to purchase AquaVenture in the United States

• €690 million in meat for Spain’s Casa Tarradellas to buy 60% of Herta in Germany from Nestlé.

Of the 47 total, 11 were in alcohol, 6 in soft drinks, 5 in ingredients, 3 in dairy and 3 in snacks.

11 were funding rounds and 5 were plant-based.

24 were in individual countries, 17 of these in the United States and 3 in the United Kingdom. 23 were international, stretching across 22 countries.

Overall, the United States featured in 27, the United Kingdom in 10, India in 4, France in 3 and Switzerland in 3.