Deals
Peco Foods and Omtron acquire assets from Townsends.
Peco Foods Inc has reached an agreement to acquire the physical assets of the Batesville, Arkansas, poultry complex owned by Townsends, Inc and subsidiaries. The purchase valued at $51.4 million includes plant, feed mill and hatchery facilities as well as selected inventories. Mark Hickman, CEO of Peco Foods commented:
“We are pleased to add the Townsends complex in northeast Arkansas to our operations,” Hickman said Friday. “The Batesville plant is very similar to our complex in Sebastopol, Mississippi, and will fit seamlessly with our overall market strategy and growth plan.”
Family owned Townsends, Inc is a third generation poultry processor which was established in 1891. Towards the end of 2010 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in the ensuing months the assets were sold at auction.
Like Townsends, Peco Foods is also a family-owned business, established in 1937 it has grown to be one of the industry’s leading suppliers of poultry processing and packaging.
Omtron Ltd has agreed to buy Townsends North Carolina division as well as its headquarters in Georgetown and certain other assets for $24.9 million. Omtron is a U.S. shell corporation created by Oleg Bakhmatyuk, a businessman based in Ukraine who has interests in food, transportation, real estate and financial companies.
According to Townsend’s management Omtron will continue to use the Townsends name and no redundancies are expected. A distinctive aspect to the deal is that Mr. Bakhmatyuk will now have a chicken processing operation out of North Carolina coupled with his current grain supplies in Ukraine.
Townsends CEO Frederick B. Beilstein III commented:
“After carefully considering the various bids, Townsends’ management and board of directors determined that selling its Arkansas operating division to Peco Foods and its North Carolina operating division and corporate headquarters to Omtron presented the best scenario available for all of our stakeholders.”
Investment Bankers SSG Capital Advisors, LLC led the transaction for Townsends. SSG is a nationally recognized investment bank that helps middle market companies, as well as their stakeholders, complete challenging financial transactions.
Investment Banker to Townsends Inc:
Managing Director J. Scott Victor commented:
"The professionals working for Townsends did extraordinary work in locating multiple strategic buyers, both foreign and domestic, for all of the company’s assets in an expedited timeframe that culminated in an all night auction. Peco Foods and Omtron emerged as the winners of the auction and purchased all of Townsends’ assets as a going concern. The most important aspect of all was that the jobs of substantially all of Townsends’ 3000 employees were preserved and this is what special situation investment banking is all about"
Mr Victor can be contacted on +1 610 940 5802 or by email at jsvictor@ssgca.com
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