Sara Lee Close to Disposing of French Bakery Unit
Sara Lee is reported to be in negotiations to sell Eurodough, its French baked goods unit, as part of the US-based group’s strategy to divest its international bakery businesses. With current EBITDA of about Eur15 million, Eurodough was acquired by Sara Lee in 2001. The business is estimated to be worth between Eur100 million and Eur150 million with private equity firms Trilantic Capital Partners and Sagard fighting over the prize.
Sara Lee recently agreed to sell its fresh bakery businesses in Spain and Portugal to Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo for Eur115 million in cash.
The divestments are in line with Sara Lee’s strategy, announced in January 2011, to divide the group into two pure play publicly-traded companies. One company will be focused around the current International Coffee and Tea business, while the other company will be focused on the North American Retail Meats and North American Foodservice businesses.
