Had your Weetabix?

18 April 2017 By Quentin Webb

Bright Food is selling the UK breakfast staple for $1.8 bln. This trailblazing cross-border deal has gone soggy, with EBITDA flat over five years. Grape Nuts maker Post Holdings is a more natural owner than a state enterprise. For once, China’s outbound M&A machine is in reverse.

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New York-listed Post Holdings said on April 18 it would buy British cereal maker Weetabix from Chinese conglomerate Bright Food and Baring Private Equity Asia for 1.4 billion pounds ($1.8 billion).

Post said Weetabix would contribute about 120 million pounds in annual EBITDA. It expects to realise additional cost synergies of about 20 million pounds a year within three years.

Weetabix is Britain's best-selling "ready-to-eat" cereal. The company also owns Alpen, Britain's top-selling muesli brand.

Reuters reported in January that Post was among four bidders vying for Weetabix. The other bidders were Associated British Foods, Cereal Partners Worldwide and Italian pasta maker Barilla, Reuters said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

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