SALE: Foods group Greencore has brought its asset disposals to more than €190 million with the sale of its Grassland Fertilisers operation to a management group for more than €28 million.
The buyer, recently formed Freshgrass Investments, is also backed by the former chief executive of Golden Vale plc and the Cork-based shipping and transport group Irish Mainport Holdings. Freshgrass's directors also include Golden Vale executive Mr Liam Woulfe.
Grassland had sales last year of €60.6 million and pre-tax profits of €2.3 million.
It is one of three Irish-owned fertiliser companies, together with the State-controlled Irish Fertiliser Industries and the IAWS-owned Gouldings. Grassland has a head office in Dublin and operates from sites in Cork, Limerick and Slane.
The consideration is made up of €19 million together with almost €9.2 million in inter-company loans from Greencore. Grassland's net assets are €16.2 million so Greencore will net an exceptional gain of about €12 million on the transaction.
This is the latest in a series of disposals by Greencore since it acquired British foods group Hazlewood for a total of €582 million in November 2000. At the time, Greencore set a target of €190 million in asset disposals in the 18 months after the acquisition and this target has been exceeded by selling off surplus Hazlewood assets and some Irish operations.
One of the non-Hazlewood assets sold was a 50 per cent stake in flour group Odlums to IAWS.
Greencore chief executive Mr David Dilger said: "The completion of this sale of Grassland brings total proceeds from our disposal programme to in excess of our announced target of €190 million. It represents a further step towards focusing the group as a leading European convenience food and ingredients producer.
