(Reuters) – Agricultural co-operative Terrena is in exclusive talks to buy a controlling stake in Doux, France’s largest poultry exporter, with oilseed investment firm Sofiproteol, the companies said on Tuesday.
Terrena, backed by Sofiproteol as a minority partner, will buy the 52.5 percent controlling stake of D&P Participations, a French family-owned investment vehicle, the companies said in a statement.
They did not give a value for the stake or a deadline for the negotiations. The exact split between Sofiproteol and Terrena also remained unclear.
Doux, which had sales of 457 million euros ($510 million) last year, was in court administration in 2012 and 2013 when it shed most of its activities in France in order to focus on its export business.
“Through this agreement the partners plan to take advantage of a growing market for poultry driven by buoyant world consumption,” the statement said.
Terrena’s poultry division had sales of around 850 million euros last year out of group revenue of 4.7 billion.
Terrena and Sofiproteol, which is part of farmer-controlled oilseed group Avril, will take the controlling stake in Doux alongside the Doux family and Saudi group Almunajem.
