Blackstone sweet on Tangerine Confectionery
PRIVATE equity firm Blackstone is set to buy Lancashire’s Tangerine Confectionery in a deal worth more than £100m.
The firm is in exclusive talks with the manufacturer and a deal is likely to be completed in the next month according to sources close to the transaction.
Tangerine, which was ranked 88th in the rankings of the top 100 private companies by profit growth over the last three years, makes own-label sweets for major supermarket retailers and also owns the Butterkist popcorn and Barratts wine gums brands.
Currently owned by Growth Capital Partners and its management, Tangerine is being advised in the process by investment bank NM Rothschild.
The company is the country’s fourth-largest confectionery firm employs around 1,340 people, including 400 in Blackpool.
It also has sites in Liverpool and four in Yorkshire, at York, Cleckheaton and two factories in Pontefract, as well as a plant at Poole in Dorset.
Last year chairman Steven Joseph told TheBusinessDesk.com the company was looking for a new investment partner ahead of an eventual Stock Market float.
It is understood that US-based Blackstone will buy Growth Capital Partners’ 40% stake in an equity-only deal, and give Tangerine further firepower to grow by acquisition.
