‘PE firms step-up chase for pet food maker’
SOME of Europe’s leading private equity houses are stalking the Cheshire company which makes supmarket pet food brand Applaws and Encore.
MPM Products, based in Macclesfield, has been open to private equity investment for several years, but has yet to conclude a successful deal.
The Sunday Times claims that an investment fund backed by some of the families that founded the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser, is in the running to take a stake in the £25m turnover company.
Teh newspaper said Belgium-based venture capital firm Verlinvest is one of several investors that have made it into the second round of the auction for MPM.
Verlinvest was set up by the de Mevius and de Spoelberch families, whose forefathers founded parts of AB InBev, which is buying FTSE 100-listed SAB Miller for £75bn. The families remain significant shareholders in the company.
Rivals bidders in the deal process being run by PwC include Mayfair Equity Partners, which was set up by former Lloyds Development Capital executive Daniel Sasaki, and another buyout firm, ECI.
MPM, which is run by chief executive Julian Bambridge, was set up by Roger Wood, Roger Coleman and Jon Kinsey in 2002 and has grown rapidly as pet owners seek better- quality food for their dogs and cats.
