UK Auction Info
Premier Foods Plc agreed to buy Campbell Soup Co.’s U.K. and Irish unit for about $845 million to add products including Homepride cooking sauces, Batchelors instant soups and Fray Bentos canned meats.
The acquisition will be funded mainly by issuing new shares, raising 450 million pounds, St. Albans, England-based Premier Foods said today in a statement. Campbell, located in Camden, New Jersey, said March 24 that it may sell the division because it hadn’t met growth expectations.
Premier Foods, the maker of Sun-Pat peanut butter and Branston pickle, is continuing a strategy of acquisitions that has helped fuel sales in the past two years. Campbell, the world’s biggest soupmaker and owner of the Pepperidge Farm brand, is emulating H.J. Heinz Co. and Sara Lee Corp. by selling European divisions as rising discount competition weighs on earnings.

Posted: 07|13|06 at 9:27 am. Filed under: Auction News.