73 acquisitions in July

July was not only a big month for the number of food and drink company transactions, with 73 deals recorded on the bevblog.net mergers and acquisitions database, it was also a month of big numbers.

There were 7 over $500 million, including 5 over $1,000 million:

• $11,300 million in beer for Japan’s Asahi to buy Carlton & United Breweries in Australia from Anheuser-Busch InBev.

• $2,500 million in packaging for Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to combine with Luxembourg’s Ardagh in creating Trivium Packaging in Netherlands.

• $2,200 million in biscuits for US-based private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to purchase Arnott’s in Australia from US-based Campbell Soup.

• $2,000 million in foodservice for Performance Food Group to gain Reinhart Foodservice from Reyes Holdings in the United States.

• $1,700 million in food for US-based PepsiCo to take over Pioneer Foods in South Africa.

Among the 73 total, 12 were in alcohol, 8 in soft drinks, 6 in packaging, 5 in dairy, 5 in snacks and 4 in ingredients.

39 were within national borders, 24 of these in the United States and 10 in the United Kingdom. 34 were international.

Overall, 22 countries were represented. The United States featured in 36 and the United Kingdom in 15, followed by Germany on 8, France on 7, then Belgium and Spain each on 4.