Permira puts Birds Eye Iglo for sale
Frozen foods business Birds Eye Iglo is up for sale with a price tag of nearly _3 billion (£2.5 billion), according to The Financial Times.
Birds Eye Iglo, which supplies frozen poultry, peas and potato products, has been under the ownership of private equity group Permira for the last five years. Permira had acquired the business for _1.7 billion in 2006 from Uniliver.
It is the largest frozen food company by sales in Europe. Last year, it generated more than _1.1 billion in sales.
According to the paper, Permira has received numerous approaches for its Iglo business and has hired Credit Suisse to handle the sale. Blackstone and Cinven along with some other private equity firms have been touted as potential bidders for the business.
Iglo has plans to announce its full-year trading figures in April. In 2010, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortization grew by 8.7 per cent to _213 million.
Based on 2011 first-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), Iglo is expected to make around _320 million in the full-year of 2011.
Iglo, which has reported nearly 8 per cent increase in profit growth every year since 2008, had net debt of _1.6 billion at the end of 2010.
