82 acquisitions in December

2020 concluded with a further 82 food and drink industry transactions registered on the Zenith Global mergers and acquisitions database.

3 amounted to more than $500 million, including 2 involving sums above $2,500 million:

• $3,800 million combined value for the 38:62 CBD merger between US based Tilray and Canada’s Aphria
• $3,000 million in packaging for US based Apollo private equity to take a 49.9% stake in Belgium based Anheuser-Busch InBev’s US metal container operations
• $710 million in ingredients for McCormick to buy Fona International in the United States.

Of the 82 total, 13 were in packaging, 11 in ingredients, 7 in soft drinks, 7 in snacks, 5 in alcohol, 5 in dairy, 4 in dairy/meat-free, 3 in equipment, 3 in fruit and 3 in services.

38 were inside individual countries, 22 of these in the United States, 4 in Spain and 4 in the United Kingdom. 44 were international. 22 countries were affected.

Leading the 82 were the United States on 45, the United Kingdom on 16, Canada on 9, Spain on 6, Italy on 5, Switzerland on 5, Japan on 4, Belgium on 3, Germany on 3 and Israel on 3.