Food industry M&A deals in Q4 2018 total $11.14bn globally

Total food industry M&A deals in Q4 2018 worth $11.14bn were announced globally, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

The value marked an increase of 51% over the previous quarter and a rise of 3.2% when compared with the last four-quarter average, which stood at $10.79bn.

Comparing deals value in different regions of the globe, North America held the top position, with total announced deals in the period worth $8.92bn. At the country level, the United States topped the list in terms of deal value at $6.84bn.

In terms of volumes, North America emerged as the top region for food M&A deals globally, followed by Europe and then Asia-Pacific.

The top country in terms of M&A deals activity in Q4 2018 was the United States with 41 deals, followed by the United Kingdom with 11 and China with six.

In 2018, as of the end of Q4, food M&As worth $42.07bn were announced globally, marking a decrease of 9.8% year on year.

Food industry M&A deals in Q4 2018: Top deals

The top five food industry M&A deals accounted for 57.7% of the overall value during Q4 2018.

The combined value of the top five food M&A deals stood at $6.43bn, against the overall value of $11.14bn recorded for the quarter.

The top announced food M&A deal tracked by GlobalData in Q4 2018 was CJ CheilJedang’s $1.84bn acquisition of The Schwan Food.

In second place was Tivity Health’s acquisition of NutriSystem for $1.4bn and in third place was Parmalat Canada’s $1.24bn asset transaction with Kraft Heinz Canada.

Hearthside Food Solutions’ $1.08bn acquisition of Greencore USA and Joyvio Group’s acquisition of Australis Seafoods for $880m held fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

This analysis considers only announced and completed deals from the GlobalData financial deals database and excludes all terminated and rumoured deals. Country and industry are defined according to the headquarters and dominant industry of the target firm.

GlobalData tracks real-time data concerning all merger and acquisition, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world from thousands of company websites and other reliable sources.

More in-depth reports and analysis on all reported deals are available for subscribers to GlobalData’s deals database.