Plasmon goes Italian again: Kraft sells to NewPrinces (Newlat)
The American multinational finalises the sale. The price, according to rumours, would be around EUR 120 million.
by Carlo Festa
2' min read
2' min read
Plasmon, the historic Italian baby food company, is back in Italy. Buying it is NewPrinces Group, the new name assumed by Newlat Food. It is being sold by its shareholder, the US multinational Kraft Heinz, listed on Wall Street. The sale price, according to rumours, would be around EUR 120 million.
A few months ago, Kraft itself had decided to divest its Italian subsidiary and with this aim had entrusted an exploratory assignment to the merchant bank Houlihan Lokey. The Italian food bigwig NewPrinces Group immediately emerged as a potential buyer over the other contenders, mostly private equity funds.
NewPrinces Group, the new name taken on by Newlat Food, one of the largest Italian food companies headed by the Mastrolia family, has been in the baby food business for some time and has a common thread linking it to Plasmon. In 2015, Plasmon's Ozzano Taro plant was sold to Newlat Food, which continued production under a Heinz licence until a year and a half ago, when the multinational decided to move the production of powdered and liquid milk for babies abroad.
NewPrinces Group has a strong experience in the sector, and today continues to produce baby milk for the multinational Abbott in the same plant in Ozzano Taro. With the acquisition, the Latina plant, one of the safest and most technologically advanced plants in the sector in Europe, where baby biscuits and baby food products are produced, will change hands.
Plasmon Dietetic Foods is an Italian food company founded in 1902 in Milan by the doctor Cesare Scotti, who remained president until the Second World War. It quickly became famous for its baby products after the war, partly as a result of population growth: after rapid growth, it has been a brand of the Heinz Group since the mid-1960s. Currently, Plasmon's activities generate around 200 million euros in turnover with an Ebitda of around 17 million euros. Already in 2019, the multinational Kraft Heinz had been considering a sale of Plasmon and a mandate, at that time, had been given to the US investment bank Jp Morgan. However, the process had not materialised with the possible interested parties, not least because the pandemic had broken out in the following months.
