Abris sells seafood canner; Exponent backs fragrance maker; Altor buys engineering co. from DPE

Good morning and Happy President’s Day, Dealmakers.

MK Flynn here with today’s Wire.

Due to the holiday in the US, we’re covering PE deals in Europe.

Our PE Hub Europe team, led by Craig McGlashan, is reporting on an exit from a canned fish company by Abris, a deal by Exponent to enter the base aroma market and Altor buying an engineering company from DPE.

Casting out. Private equity investor Abris Capital Partners is set to sell all its shares in Polish canned fish producer Graal, alongside the company’s founder.

Lisner Holding, owned by German food business Müller Group, is the buyer.

Graal has three brands: Graal, Neptun and Kuchnia Staropolska, and also supplies to private labels. The deal excludes the Koral fresh and smoked fish business. It is subject to Polish antimonopoly office approval.

Abris had a stake in the company for six years. Graal recorded sales of $360 million in 2022.

Sniff of a deal. Exponent has agreed to acquire IFF’s Flavour Specialty Ingredients division (FSI), a global supplier of base aromas.

The proposed sale includes four dedicated manufacturing and distribution facilities in the UK, US and China, as well as additional distribution centers in Mexico, Brazil and Hong Kong.

Headquartered in the UK, FSI is a supplier of “high-value,” specialty base aromas with an offering of natural and aroma chemical products. The company serves more than 970 clients across Europe, North America and Asia and generates over $100 million in revenue.
“FSI is a global leader in the base aromas market, with a strong customer base and a differentiated portfolio of natural and aroma chemical products,” said Mark Taylor, partner at Exponent.

Process engineering. Altor Equity Partners has agreed to acquire a majority stake in VTU Group from Deutsche Private Equity (DPE). VTU’s management will reinvest.

Based in Graz, Austria, VTU is a process engineering company servicing blue-chip customers in the life sciences and fine chemicals industries. VTU is an EPCMv (engineering, procurement, construction management and validation) provider with more than 1,200 employees across Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Belgium.
DPE acquired a majority stake in VTU in 2018. Under the Munich-based firm’s ownership, VTU made three strategic acquisitions and increased its revenues by approximately 160 percent, according to DPE.

For ongoing coverage of private equity-backed deals in Europe, register for PE Hub Europe and the Dealflow daily newsletter today!

And if you’ve got news about European dealmaking to share, reach out to the team:

Craig McGlashan, editor: craig.m@peimedia.com
Nina Lindholm, reporter: nina.l@peimedia.com
Irien Joseph, assistant reporter: irien.j@peimedia.com
And, as always, you can reach me at mk.flynn@peimedia.com

I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday. If you’re in the mood for a movie, the new “Ant-Man” starring Paul Rudd looks fun – and is beating box office expectations on its opening weekend.

I’ll be back with more PE dealmaking news tomorrow!

Cheers, MK