Tegel Foods majority owner, Affinity Equity Partners, has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to advise on the proposed initial public offering of the poultry business.
Auckland-based Tegel Foods is New Zealand’s largest poultry business and is understood to be worth around $NZ900 million.
Fairfax Media reported last month Affinity had contacted investment banks, seeking pitches for the company’s float. According to Fairfax, Affinity took face to face pitches last week, interviewing investment banks with strong Australian and New Zealand equities business.
The IPO timetable is reportedly being finalised but it’s understood marketing will start shortly.
Affinity bought Tegel from Pacific Equity Partners in 2011 for a reported $NZ600 million ($A547.30 million), and since then has divested the company’s property, including the sale of two long lease chicken processing plants to buyers including Wellington-based Caniwi Capital for $NZ60m in July 2013.
Tegel reported a profit of $NZ14.1m on sales of $NZ517.2m in the year ended April 27, 2014, the last accounts filed by holding company Ross Group Holdings.
The majority of New Zealand’s chicken industry is owned by private equity investors after Inghams Enterprises (NZ), the country’s second largest poultry producer, was sold, along with its Australian parent, Ingham Enterprises, to TPG for $A880m in June 2013.
