The sale of Kerry Dairy Holdings (Ireland) Ltd to Kerry Co-Operative Creameries Ltd was completed 31 December 2024 and comes less than two months after the announcement of the sale in November.
Taking place in two stages, this first phase of the sale sees the co-operative acquiring a 70% stake in the dairy business for €350m before taking ownership of the remaining 30% at a later date for €150m.
Commenting on the completion, Kerry Group chief executive Edmond Scanlon said: “Today marks a significant step in Kerry’s history, becoming a pure play global business to business taste and nutrition company, with sustainable nutrition at its core, while also supporting our financial objectives of continued market outperformance, strong margin progression and delivering greater returns for our shareholders.
Dairy contribution
“I would like to recognise the Kerry Dairy Ireland employees for their contribution to Kerry over the years and wish them the very best in the future.”
On 31 December 2024, Kerry Group redeemed and cancelled the Co-Op’s entire shareholding of 19,045,396 A Ordinary Shares and issued a total of 16,187,024 A Ordinary Shares (the “New Shares”) to the Co-Op Members and to satisfy fractional share entitlements.
Meanwhile, Kerry Group’s Q3 interim management statement revealed the company’s Taste & Nutrition division experienced volume growth of 3.4% and an increase in group volumes by 3.2%. Year to date earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were up 120bps for Taste & Nutrition and up 140 across the group.
Growth in the Americas
“This represented continued strong volume growth in the Americas, a good performance in APMEA, with volumes in Europe turning positive in the third quarter,” said Scanlon. “
“Volumes in the retail channel steadily improved through the period, while foodservice continued to deliver strong growth, given our unique positioning as we outlined at our recent investor day. We remain on track to achieve our full year guidance, and today we reiterate our range of 7% to 10% constant currency adjusted earnings per share growth.”
In other mergers and acquisition news, last month, James Scallan and Javier Chiquero of investment bank Houlihan Lokey assessed the food and drink industry mergers and acquisitions landscape and discuss what lies ahead in 2025.
