(Reuters) – Investment firm 3G Capital Partners LP is looking at new acquisition targets after investors pledged about $5 billion to form a new takeover fund, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Executives at the New York-based Brazilian investment firm are discussing the possibility of buying a food or beverage company such as Campbell Soup Co or even PepsiCo Inc , the newspaper reported.
3G could collaborate with brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev or end up taking only pieces of PepsiCo, which has a market capitalization of about $140 billion, the report said. (on.wsj.com/1KkoEm2)
Representatives at 3G, PepsiCo, Campbell Soup and Anheuser-Busch were not available for comment outside business hours.
Last February, PepsiCo’s board again rejected activist investor Nelson Peltz’s renewed call to split its beverage business from its flourishing snacks division.
3G, led by former professional tennis player Jorge Paulo Lemann, owns a controlling stake in Anheuser-Busch along with his two partners and a group of Belgian families, the report said.
3G has not made any decision on the deals and usually studies targets for years before making a move, WSJ said.
Burger King, which was 70 percent owned by 3G, bought Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons for C$12.64 billion ($11.53 billion) in cash and stock last August.
In 2013, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway provided $12 billion toward a $23 billion deal that gave 3G day-to-day control of Heinz, the world’s top ketchup maker. Buffett said last year he would probably partner with 3G again, lauding it for doing a “magnificent job” of running businesses. (Reporting By Shivam Srivastav in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
