Cinven, a private equity firm that owns Partner in Pet Food (PPF), has paused the sale process of the pet food manufacturer, according to a report from Bloomberg.
On March 24, it was reported that private equity groups Advent International and CVC Capital had teamed up to bid for PPF. Now, Cinven has put the auction process on hold because it wasn’t able to agree with bidders on a price. According to the report, Cinven deemed the offers to be undervalued given the market potential.
PPF, based in Hungary and owned by Cinven since 2018, was previously reported to be valued at more than €2 billion (US$2.2 billion). Created through a series of acquisitions between 2000 and 2006, PPF was previously acquired by Advent in 2011 before being sold to to Pamplona Capital Management for €315 million (US$342.7 million) in 2015.
According to Petfood Industry's Top Pet Food Companies listing, PPF supplies retailers, discounters, specialty pet retailers and online specialists in 38 countries. PPF makes a full value range of dry, wet and semi-moist cat and dog food, alucups, pouches and snacks with operations in 10 countries: The Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, France, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Germany. With 11 factories across Europe, PPF claims it is the only market operator with an integrated pan-European production network. It produces nearly 500,000 tons of pet food yearly. The company, with headquarters in Budapest, employs more than 1,400 people.
