i mean, i'm no judge of the rules. I simply opened a page, copied the content, and pasted it here:
Private equity and strategic investors are back swarming around New Zealand’s lucrative manuka honey sector, preparing for the next blockbuster auction.
Honey New Zealand is understood to making $NZ60 million ($55.5 million) revenue annually and $NZ25 million at the EBITDA line.
Street Talk can reveal premium honey-based products manufacturer and seller Honey New Zealand – which operates under the Manuka Doctor brand name – is in the market for a deep-pocketed new investor, and has drafted in Goldman Sachs to help run the search.
It is understood Goldman Sachs’ bankers have started approaching a small list of potential acquirers, pitching Honey New Zealand as the No.1 premium Manuka honey brand in the United Kingdom and Europe and the result of years of hard work by its owner and founder Matthew Pringle.
Pringle’s got it to the stage where Honey New Zealand is making about $NZ60 million ($55.5 million) revenue annually and $NZ25 million at the EBITDA line by making and selling Manuka honey and honey-related products – skincare, vitamins and supplements, and the like.
It is understood interested parties were told Honey New Zealand’s sales were up 20 per cent a year over the past three years, and three-quarters of revenue stemmed from the UK and Europe.
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Part of its offshore success comes from deals with the likes of Holland & Barrett, one of the UK’s largest health and wellbeing retail chains, which stocks the Manuka Doctor product range. Closer to home, Pringle’s also been able to shore-up Honey New Zealand’s supply chain in Australia and New Zealand - ensuring he can get his hands on high-grade honey and process it effectively.
The sale is expected to attract interest from a similar group of buyers that have lined up to take a look at a raft of manuka honey and supplement businesses in recent years. Australian private equity firms are also expected to take a look, given their success in NZ over the past two decades.
The most relevant comparable business is Pacific Equity Partners’ Manuka Health, which sold to Malaysia’s Hong Leong Group for a juicy 16-times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in 2018.
A similar multiple would value Honey New Zealand at about $NZ400 million - although some buyers reckon Manuka Doctor’s products deserve a premium over their rivals.
The mooted sale comes as rival supplements and manuka honey group The Better Health Company, owned by Asian private equity firm CDH Investments, is also on the block.
CDH drafted in Macquarie Capital’s investment banking team to run that sale –
as revealed by this column last year – and the bankers fired off a
six-point pitch to buyout funds in February.
Sources said there were a bunch of buyers interested in The Better Health Company’s manuka honey products, but were less keen on its vitamins and supplements business, and those funds were likely to have been Goldman Sachs’ first call.
www.afr.com
