Young’s Seafood to go it alone as part of takeover
YOUNG’S Seafood, the Grimsby-based fish manufacturer, will be hived off into a standalone company as part of a takeover of its owner Findus Group.
Consumer group Nomad Foods, which owns fish finger maker Birds Eye, on Wednesday said it was in exclusive talks with the owners of Findus Group to buy the group.
Findus yesterday said Nomad was conducting due diligence on the group, with a view to buying Findus Nordic and Findus Southern Europe.
A deal would give the group Findus’ food operations in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, France, Spain and Belgium.
However, Findus operations in the UK are not included, meaning Young’s Seafood and the use of the Findus brand in the UK will remain with Findus’ current owners, which include Lion Capital and JP Morgan. Findus has its headquarters in London.
Centerview Partners is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Lion Capital and the other shareholders.
Nomad Foods, which is 22 per cent owned by well known hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, was founded last year by Noam Gottesman and Martin Franklin.
Franklin is the tycoon behind the Jarden conglomerate, the owner of sandwich-toaster maker Breville while Gottesman co-founded hedge fund GLG Partners.