Oghma Partners LLP, the food & beverage focused corporate finance boutique, is pleased to release a further business guide for owner operators within the food and beverage industry.

The acquisition and disposal of businesses, particularly in the food and wider consumer sectors, continues unabated despite the current difficult economic climate in the UK and Europe. For the private company owner, quite often an unsolicited approach will come out of the blue and may be seen as either: a pleasant surprise; a distraction; or an annoyance. We review the methods of assessing an unsolicited approach and the various ways to respond to it. Dealt with correctly an approach, even if unwanted, could supply you with valuable intelligence; treated badly an approach could cost your business considerable amounts of time and you may unwittingly disclose commercially sensitive information.

Please click here for the full press release.

Oghma Partners was established in 2008 and provides acquisition, divestment, fund raising and strategy advice to European food and beverage companies and investors. For further information on how Oghma can assist small food and Dec-2011-Press-release-re-Business-Guide-Unsolicited-offersbeverage manufacturers and distributors, please do contact us via phone or email.

Oghma Partners LLP is pleased to announce its role as M&A advisor in relation to the acquisition of Windyridge Cheese Ltd. Windyridge Cheese is a Somerset based manufacturer of blended cheeses. The business has been successfully developed over a number of years by the current owners producing iconic blended cheese products such as ‘Afterburn’ , ‘Jalapeno Jack’ and ‘ Whisky and Ginger’. Mel Smith the former Managing Director of Windyridge will remain with the company in a consultancy role and day to day management will be taken over by Steve Molloy formerly Head of Operations at Ilchester Cheese Ltd. Steve is also Chairman of the acquiring company which is backed by private investor money.

The market for blended cheese represents an exciting opportunity for growth with sales at retail value of £200mn for cheese with additives and CAGR of 13% 2006-2009*. Steve Molloy commenting on the transaction stated, ‘We are very excited and pleased to be able to build on the hard work of Mel Smith and her team at Windyridge and believe that with Mel’s continued help and the introduction of additional resources that Windyridge will be well placed to work with its clients to exploit the opportunities in this growth segment of the cheese market.’

Please click here to see the attached press release for further information.

The September T2 M&A review compiled by Mark Lynch and Oghma Partners LLP is released this week.

Despite some sizeable deals over the past year or two in the food and beverage sector involving household names such as, Kraft, Unilever and Dairy Crest, activity in the UK appears to be slowing in the four months to end August, period on period. Therefore in this edition, the question of whether the latest M&A figures reflect growing concerns over weaknesses in the UK economy is analysed.

The role of Private Equity is also considered, with questions over sources of funding for deals in the current climate.

To order a copy of the review and see our analysis of the last months activity in more detail, please contact us using the form here

The latest edition of the Oghma Partners M&A Review will be released in mid-September. Please contact us to be added to the mailing list and receive your copy as soon as it is ready!

Oghma Partners LLP advises Greencore Group plc on the recommended £113 million cash offer for Uniq plc.

London – July 2011

Oghma Partners LLP is pleased to announce its role as an advisor to Greencore Group plc in relation to the following transaction which was announced today:

£113 million Recommended Cash Offer by Greencore Foods Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Greencore Group plc for Uniq plc

For the full press release please click here.

Oghma  Partners T1 M&A Review (published this May) looks at transactions across the UK Food and Beverage universe for the first four months of 2011 and compares these deals with activity from 2007 onwards. Transaction multiples for many of the deals remains confidential and so any analysis is based upon an understandably narrow data set, however there is evidence that the price achieved for transactions has been increasing over the last year and a half or so. The improvement in rating would make sense. The trading environment though challenging has more visibility than two years ago. In addition, there are more buyers around as confidence has returned to the M&A market and debt has become more available than in 2008 or 2009. Finally, it is noted that the valuation of quoted companies, as measured by P/E or EBITDA ratio’s, has increased. The above suggests that a seller of a Food or Beverage asset today should achieve more for the sale of their business than they would have done a couple of years ago. The above issues and more is covered in Oghma Partners LLP T1 2011 M&A Review out today.

If you would like us to send you the latest full M&A review (to May 2011) and to be added to our mailing list for future reviews, please do contact us for further details.

Oghma Partners was established in 2008 and provides acquisition, divestment, fund raising and strategy advice to European food and beverage companies and investors. For further information on how Oghma can assist food and beverage manufacturers and distributors, please do contact us via phone or email.

Oghma Partners T1 2011  M&A Review  for the Food and Beverage sector (published this May) references a continuation in the difficult trading environment. Inflation and limited growth in wages is limiting growth in disposal income, on top of these factors unemployment concerns are denting consumer confidence; there seems little let up in this environment anytime soon. Despite these challenges, M&A activity has increased by value and volume in the first Tertial of 2011 compared to the prior period. The increased activity is put down to a more stable lending environment and the drive to cut costs through consolidation. Action to reduce debt is also freeing up assets for strategic buyers as the recent purchase of Premier Foods canning operations by Princes Food Group demonstrates.

If you would like us to send you the latest full M&A review (to May 2011) and to be added to our mailing list for future reviews, please do contact us for further details.

Oghma Partners is pleased to announce that the latest M&A Review for T1 2011 has now been released.

In the latest issue, Mark Lynch, Partner of Oghma Partners, discusses the trend of increased  M&A activity (by value) which was noted throughout 2010 and has continued in the first four months of  2011.The review also comments on the impact of the latest deals seen throughout this period (including Big Bear/Raisio, Premier Foods/Canning and Quorn and Northern Foods/Boporan) as well as reviewing the source of buyers for UK Food and Beverage assets.

The document contains an analysis of the latest deal multiples and predictions for the next few months of 2011, taking into account tough trading times and modest growth forecasts. Despite these pressures, deal value and volume are both expected to be positive, showing a significant improvement on 2007-9.

If you would like us to send you the latest full M&A review (to May 2011) and to be added to our mailing list for future reviews, please do contact us for further details

March 2nd 2011

Valuing any company is difficult partly due partly to the challenge of reviewing a business and partly due to the confusion of different techniques on offer. Oghma Partners LLP in its latest Company Briefing covers the key techniques of valuing a business and reviews the difficulties and problems with the various approaches. The author, Mark Lynch, is a Partner at Oghma Partners LLP, before turning to Corporate Finance, Mark led the number 1 Extel Rated Food and also Household Goods Team at UBS Warburg providing valuation and sector advice to the worlds’ leading institutional investors, he was also twice voted in the top ten of all analysts across all sectors of the City of London.

Please Valuing-a-Food-and-Beverage-Business“click here to download your copy.

London – January 2011

Oghma Partners LLP, Food and Beverages M&A specialist advisors, publishes its latest Tri-Annual review of M&A activity in the UK Food and Drinks sector. An article referring to the report was recently published in The Grocer magazine. The latest review looks at all activity in the sector in 2010 and includes some thoughts regarding the outlook for activity in 2011. For a copy of the report please email us.