Food industry M&A deals in Q4 2020 total $8.96bn globally

Total food industry M&A deals in Q4 2020 worth $8.96bn were announced globally, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

The value marked an increase of 21.5% over the previous quarter and a rise of 37.2% when compared with the last four-quarter average, which stood at $6.53bn.

Comparing deals value in different regions of the globe, North America held the top position, with total announced deals in the period worth $6.7bn. At the country level, the US topped the list in terms of deal value at $5.01bn.

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

The top country in terms of M&A deals activity in Q4 2020 was the US with 34 deals, followed by China with 11 and Japan with eight.

In 2020, as of the end of Q4 2020, food M&A deals worth $26.72bn were announced globally, marking an increase of 14.1% year on year.

Food industry M&A deals in Q4 2020: Top deals

The top five food industry M&A deals accounted for 64.7% of the overall value during Q4 2020.

The combined value of the top five food M&A deals stood at $5.8bn, against the overall value of $8.96bn recorded for the month.

The top five food industry deals of Q4 2020 tracked by GlobalData were:

1) Stone Canyon Industries Holdings’ $3.2bn acquisition of Morton Salt

2) The $800m acquisition of Salsas de Jalisco Cacu by McCormick &Inc

3) FNCPartnership and Premium Brands’ $765.59m acquisition of Clearwater Seafoods

4) The $550m asset transaction with The J.M. Smucker by B&G Foods

5) Utz Brands’ acquisition of Truco Enterprises for $480m.

Verdict deals analysis methodology

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. The term ‘acquisition’ refers to both completed deals and those in the bidding stage.

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.