59 acquisitions in May

An active month. 59 food and drink transactions were recorded on the bevblog.net mergers and acquisitions database during May, including a record 11 on a single day – the 24th.

Exceptionally, however, there were none over $1 billion or even $500 million. The biggest in May was the $446 million US private equity purchase of Nutraceutical International by HGGC.

Of the 59, 10 were in alcohol, 10 in soft drinks, 5 in dairy, 5 in nutrition and 3 each in bakery, equipment, frozen food, ingredients, meat and packaging.

The deals took place across 24 countries. 35 were within national boundaries, including 19 in the United States and 8 in the United Kingdom. 24 were international.

Overall, the United States featured in 28, the United Kingdom in 14 and Germany in 4, then China, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain each in 3.