Castle Harlan, a New York private equity investment firm, and Champ Private Equity, its affiliate based in Australia, have agreed to sell United Malt Holdings, one of the world’s largest producers of malt for the brewing and distilling industries, to GrainCorp, an Australian bulk-grain handler.
The transaction would be valued at USD655m (AUD757m).
United Malt is made up of four malting companies: Great Western Malting in the US; Canada Malting in Canada; Barrett Burston Malting in Australia, and Bairds Malt in the UK.
Castle Harlan and Champ acquired the businesses in September 2006 from Conagra Foods, a US company, and Tiger Brands of South Africa.
GrainCorp is an agribusiness company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market capitalization today of AUD806m.
David Pittaway, senior managing director at Castle Harlan, says: "The GNC and UMH management teams have identified significant benefits that will result from the combination of these two great businesses."
