M&A Update | Food & Beverage

Table 8: Quarterly M&A transactions by segment

Table 9: Quarterly M&A transactions by buyer type

6.5%

15%

3.2%

11.3%

Beverage Branded Packaged Goods Agribusiness Natural / Organic Snack Private Label

32.3%

Strategic Buyer

Financial Buyer

12.9%

85%

33.9%

The branded packaged goods segment led the food and beverage industry’s M&A activity by volume, accounting for 33.9 percent of the total deals closed in Q1-2018. The beverage segment accounted for the second largest percentage of total deals for the period with 32.3 percent. The agribusiness segment followed, accounting for 12.9 percent. The snack, private label and natural/organic segments comprised the remainder of the total for the period, representing 11.3 percent, 6.5 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Strategic buyers were most active by volume in Q1-2018 for the food and beverage industry, representing 85 percent of all closed transactions, with financial buyers representing the remaining 15 percent. It should be noted that many of the transactions involving financial buyers consisted of financial buyers making strategic purchases through existing platform companies. U.S. middle-market food and beverage M&A activity There were eight reported middle-market 2 transactions that closed during Q1-2018, up from the seven closed middle- market transactions in Q4-2017. Reported middle-market transactions in Q1-2018 remained steady with the eight closed middle-market deals for the same period in 2017. The aggregate deal value of the middle-market M&A transactions with reported values was $610 million during Q1-2018. This is a decrease from the total deal value of $703 million in Q4-2017.

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