Irish listed food giant Kerry Group won the Deal of the Year award at the 7th Irish Times Business Awards, run in association with Bank of Ireland.
The divestment last year of the group’s dairy processing operations to Kerry Co-op members in a two-stage deal valued at €500 million was chosen by the independent judging panel as the winner for the prize. The co-op, which currently owns about 11 per cent of Kerry Group, will sell 15 per cent of its holding to part finance the initial stage of the deal, which would see it take a 70 per cent stake in Kerry Dairy Ireland.
Four big transactions were shortlisted for the award. These included Grant Thornton Ireland’s merger with its US sister firm of their nonaudit units, with backing by New York private equity firm New Mountain Capital. The Irish business will have a 12 per cent stake in the combined entity with its 45 equity partners receiving a multimillion euro payout.
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Also shortlisted was the sale to private equity giant Blackstone of a major stake in data centre business Winthrop Technologies in a deal valuing the Irish company at more than €800 million.
In addition, Flutter Entertainment’ s acquisition of Italy’s Snaitech for a cash consideration based on an enterprise value of €2.3 billion was nominated for the award.
The award winners were chosen by a panel of judges chaired by Microsoft executive Anne Sheehan. The awards was presented at an event in the Round Room of the Mansion House in Dublin on Thursday night.
