Adeptio’s bid to acquire Americana fails

Adeptio’s bid to acquire a majority interest in Kuwait Food Co (Americana) has failed, ending months of negotiations with Kuwait’s al-Kharafi family.

Besides being franchisees for KFC and Pizza Hut in the Middle East region, the company also manufactures consumer foods.

The al-Kharafi family has intended to sell its stake since 2014.

In February, private equity firm Adeptio agreed to acquire a 69% stake in Americana from Al Khair for Stocks and Real Estate, which is controlled by the al-Kharafi family.

As per the present market value, Thomson Reuters data expects this interest to be worth $2.15bn.

Al Khair was quoted by arabianbusiness.com as saying: "An agreement has not been reached between Al Khair and Adeptio and both sides have agreed to end all negotiations in regard to the acquisition."

The two companies did not cite the reason for the failure of the deal.

An Adeptio spokesperson was quoted by the website as saying: "The parties involved could not reach an agreement on mutually acceptable terms."

Earlier, Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, Saudi Arabia-based Savola Group, and private equity funds KKR and CVC showed interest in acquiring a stake in Americana.

If Adeptio was successful in acquiring the stake in Americana, then it would have to make an offer to acquire the remaining share in Americana, as per the country’s securities rules.

Last month, Citi dropped its plan to offer a loan to Adeptio, which had approached a group of banks for $1.5bn funding for the acquisition.