
Craft and industrial brewers use barley malted by Barrett Burston, part of United Malt Group, which is set to be bought by France’s Malteries Soufflet. Photo: Yulli’s Brews, Sydney
SOUFFLET is one step closer to becoming the world’s biggest maltster with news today that it has entered into a scheme implementation deed to buy ASX-listed company United Malt Group for $5 per share.
Behind Boortmalt, InVivo Group subsidiary Malteries Soufflet is currently the world’s second-largest maltster, while UMG is the fourth largest.
Soufflet announced in March that it had launched a takeover bid for UMG, which owns Barrett Burston Malting, a leading supplier of malt to industrial and craft brewers, with malthouses located at Pinkenba in Queensland, Geelong in Victoria, and Welshpool in Western Australia.
UMG also owns New Zealand’s Cryer Malt, Canada Malting and Great Western Malting in North America, and Bairds Malt in the UK.
UMG has 12 processing plants globally, and annually produces around 1.25 million tonnes (Mt) of malt.
“This is a fantastic outcome for our customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders and we look forward to completing the transaction,” UMG managing director and chief executive officer Mark Palmquist said.
“We are pleased to join forces with Malteries Soufflet, a company that shares our commitment to delivering exceptional malt products to our customers.”
Upon implementation of the scheme, UMG will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malteries Soufflet, whose chair and InVivo Group CEO Thierry Blandinières described today’s announcement as a “significant milestone”.
“This marks an important step in the implementation of our strategy to create a global platform in the malt sector, which we developed with our strategic partners, KKR, Bpifrance and Crédit Agricole Group.
“With complementary assets, both in terms of geographical footprint and business segments, the combination will enable us to better serve our customers from craft and industrial beer brewers to whisky distillers across international markets.
“We look forward to welcoming the talented United Malt team and enhancing Malteries Soufflet’s expertise, capabilities and global network.”
Soufflet runs a total of 28 malthouses in Europe , Latin America, Asia and Africa, and has an annual malt production capacity of 2.36Mt, beneath Boortmalt’s annual global malting capacity of 3Mt.
The scheme implementation deed announced today is subject to a number of conditions which include:
- An independent expert report concluding it is in the best interests of UMG shareholders;
- Merger control and anti-trust/competition-related regulatory and foreign investment approvals in relevant jurisdictions; and,
- Federal Court of Australia and UMG shareholder approval.
Source: Soufflet, UMG
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