Tate & Lyle carries out strategic sale of oats business to Lantmännen
Livingstone’s Consumer sector team has advised Tate & Lyle PLC on the sale of its oats business based in Kimstad, Sweden to Lantmännen. Livingstone was the exclusive financial advisor to Tate & Lyle in the sales process.
Livingstone contributed with our expertise from previous transactions in the oats segment, assisted in positioning the investment opportunity and led a structured sales process.
Tate & Lyle PLC sold its facility in Kimstad, which produced oat protein, beta glucan, and oat flour, to Lantmännen. The decision to sell was in line with its strategy to focus on mainstream food categories. For Lantmännen, the acquisition represents another step in its focus on refinement and increased oat production capacity. The business will become part of the Energy division at Lantmännen.
“Livingstone was a reliable and highly engaged advisor, and it was a real advantage for us to be able to leverage both Christopher and Fredrik’s knowledge of the oats segment from the very first day,” says Sonal Dash, VP Strategy, Planning & Corporate Development at Tate & Lyle.
LSE listed Tate & Lyle PLC is a global provider of solutions and ingredients for food, beverage, and industrial markets. The company has more than 4,000 employees and can trace its roots back to 1859.
Lantmännen is an agricultural cooperative and Northern Europe’s leader in agriculture, machinery, bioenergy and food products. Lantmännen operates in 20 countries and has an annual turnover of SEK 45 billion. Among its most well-known brands are AXA, Kungsörnen, GoGreen, and Hatting.
“Oat has fantastic properties and vast industrial opportunity within functional foods. I’m pleased our team could put our expertise in this segment to good use,” says Christopher Fägerskiöld, Partner at Livingstone.
Global interest and demand for oat-based products is strong and growing. Oat offers several important health benefits and oats from Nordic countries are especially attractive thanks to its high quality.
“We see large investments being made into research on oat health benefits and product development of oat-based ingredients. We also see increasing demand in segments other than food, such as beauty and pharmaceuticals,” says Fredrik Fällström, Associate Director at Livingstone.
The completion of this transaction reinforces Livingstone’s credentials in the functional foods niche, following the sale of Skånemejerier’s minority share in ProViva to Danone and the sale of betaglucan specialist Swedish Oat Fiber to Naturex.