Campbell Soup Co. sells Australian cookie business for $2.2 billion
The sale caps a string of divestitures designed to sharpen the Camden company's focus on its Snyder's-Lance snacks business and its traditional soup and sauce brands.
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Capping a nearly yearlong effort to sell overseas business to pay debt and focus on North American operations, Campbell Soup Co. on Friday announced that New York investment firm KKR & Co. Inc. had agreed to pay $2.2 billion for Arnott’s and other businesses in Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Last month, the Camden company announced a deal to sell Kelsen Group, whose cookie brands include Kjeldsens and Royal Dansk, to an affiliate of Italy’s Ferro Group for $300 million. Six years ago, Campbell paid $331 million for the company, which now employs 400 and had $157 million in sales in the last 12 months.
It’s harder to say how much Campbell paid for Arnott’s because it first invested in the company in the 1980s, but did not take full ownership until 1997. Arnott’s and the other international operations being sold to KKR had combined revenues of $885 million in the last 12 months and employ 3,800, Campbell said.
Campbell had previously raised $565 million from the sales of carrot and beverage company Bolthouse Farms and dip maker Garden Fresh Gourmet.
The aggregate net proceeds of nearly $3 billion will be used to pay down some of the company’s $9 billion in debt used to buy Snyder’s-Lance Inc. and other businesses.