Capvest beats Cranswick to collar £300m petfood group

Dec 18, 2020 | News

A former owner of the Findus brand has beaten Cranswick, the listed food company, in the race to buy one of Britain’s best-known pet food manufacturers.

Sky News understands that Capvest, the private equity firm, is close to striking a deal to buy Inspired Pet Nutrition (IPN), which makes Wagg dog food and the upmarket brand Harrington’s.

City sources said that Capvest was expected to pay between £250m and £300m for IPN – a price that would reflect the rapid growth of the category in a coronavirus-hit Britain.

News of the auction’s winner comes 24 hours after Sky News revealed that Cranswick was preparing to launch an equity-raising to partly fund a takeover of IPN.

On Thursday morning, Cranswick told the London Stock Exchange that it had withdrawn from the bidding war.

AdvertisementIts withdrawal is understood to have been on the basis of the price that Capvest was prepared to pay to outbid it.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen sales of pets and products associated with them soar among locked-down Britons, with a number of businesses in the sector changing hands in recent months at bumper valuations.

IPN has been owned for several years owned by L Catterton, a private equity firm backed by the French luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault.

The auction of IPN is being handled by bankers at Harris Williams.

Capvest, which is planning to float the parent company of Young’s Seafood on the stock market next year, could not be reached for comment.

Source: Sky News

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