Reuters — United Malt Group has received an indicative, non-binding offer from Malteries Soufflet, a branch of French agribusiness InVivo, the Australian commercial maltster said on Tuesday, valuing it at A$1.5 billion (C$1.36 billion).
The A$5 per share offer represents a 45.3 per cent premium to United Malt’s last close of A$3.44. Trading in shares of the company was halted on Monday.
InVivo, which acquired agribusiness peer Soufflet last year, has said it aims to become the world’s top malt producer within five years through external growth.
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Earlier this year, it signed an agreement to take over Belgian malthouse Castle Malting, one of the oldest producers of the beer ingredient in the world.
Malteries Soufflet is the largest commercial maltster in Europe and the second largest globally.
United Malt disclosed it first received an offer of A$4.15 per share in December, followed by several others from the French firm. The latest proposal was made on March 14.
The company has granted Soufflet exclusive access to conduct a due diligence.
United Malt is the world’s fourth largest commercial maltster, producing bulk malt for brewers, craft brewers, distillers and food companies. The company has processing plants in Canada, the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom.
United Malt’s Canadian assets are under the purview of Calgary-based Canada Malting, which produces about 400,000 tonnes of malt per year.
Canada Malting’s business includes malting plants at Calgary, Montreal and Thunder Bay, nine country elevators across the three Prairie provinces, and Country Malt facilities at Delta, B.C., Brampton and Calgary. The Country Malt packaging plant in Calgary was set up at the Canada Malting plant site in 2019.
United Malt was acquired by Australia’s GrainCorp in 2009 and spun off in 2020. GrainCorp retains an 8.5 per cent stake in the firm, while investment firm Tanarra Capital is United Malt’s largest shareholder.
Neither of the companies immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment on the offer.
— Reporting for Reuters by Harish Sridharan in Bangalore.
