UK canned foods maker Premier Foods should hold an open auction to sell off its flagship Batchelors Soup brand in a bid to improve the company’s financial outlook, activist investor Oasis Management said on Thursday.
The call from one of the company’s biggest shareholders comes ahead of an annual meeting later this month at which it has called for the removal of Premier Foods’ chief executive Gavin Darby. Oasis has previously said the company’s brands were strong and had been mismanaged by the current leadership.
“Using conservative assumptions, Oasis believes that the sale of Batchelors … would generate more than 200 million pounds ($264.72 million) of proceeds, or more than 60 percent of the current market capitalisation of the company,” Oasis said in an email on Thursday.
($1 = 0.7555 pounds)
By Noor Zainab Hussain
Source: Reuters
Nestle SA has accelerated its product development process by 60% since 2016, according to the company. The faster speed to market has been achieved through a restructuring of its research and development process. Now the company is investing in various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to further improve its R&D process and generate better results.
German chemicals distributor Brenntag has confirmed potential takeover talks with US rival Univar Solutions and is understood to be debating the feasibility of a potential acquisition in the coming months. Univar Solutions confirms that it has received a preliminary indication of interest from Brenntag regarding a potential transaction.
Cargill has announced the acquisition of Owensboro Grain Company, a soybean processing facility and refinery located in Kentucky. The purchase of the Owensboro-based company will support Cargill’s efforts to “modernise and increase capacity across its North American oilseeds network to support growing demand for oilseeds driven by food, feed and renewable fuel markets”.
