Egyptian Halawa and Tahini producer El Rashidi El Mizan has been acquired for 92 million Egyptian pounds ($20 million) by a consortium which includes the senior management team, the Rashidi family and CDC Capital Partners. Middle East Foods is the Egyptian company through which the consortium has acquired the shares of the company.
The transaction is believed to be Egypt’s first management buy-out (MBO) - the purchase of a company or division by the management team currently employed to run that business. The investment is so structured that the interests of the management and the financial investors that are backing the management team are closely aligned.
Bestfoods bought a controlling interest in this 113-year old family business in 2000. Following the subsequent acquisition of Bestfoods by Unilever the opportunity arose for the senior management and the family to reacquire El Rashidi El Mizan with the assistance of CDC Capital Partners, a leading emerging market financial investor.
El Rashidi El Mizan was established in 1889. For most of its history it operated as a family business. In 2000 the Halawa and Tahini business was sold to Bestfoods. The transaction was priced in dollars at the then prevailing exchange rate of EP 3.4 to the dollar.
Once Unilever acquired Bestfoods it was obliged to acquire the balance of the company in accordance with the original Bestfoods agreement, consequently in 2002, the remaining 49 percent of the shares were bought by Unilever.
El Rashidi El Mizan was one of many former Bestfoods businesses that did not fit with Unilevers path to growth strategy. Consequently the senior management team backed by the Rashidi family and CDC Capital Partners sought to negotiate the re-acquisition of the business.
CDC Capital Partners is a leading emerging market private equity investor. It is a public limited company, registered in the UK as CDC Group. CDC currently has $1.2 billion invested across a wide range of sectors. With an international office network, CDC invests throughout Africa, South Asia, Asia Pacific and Latin America. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
