Olam International Limited (Olam), a leading agri-business operating across the value chain in 70 countries, announced today that it has acquired a 100.0% interest in Brooks Peanut Company (Brooks) at an enterprise value of US$85.0 million.
Brooks is currently the sixth largest peanut sheller in the US and the largest Alabama-based sheller, processing approximately 110,000 Farmer Stock Tons (FST) with an annual capacity at 175,000 FST. Founded in 1959, the company is based in Samson, Alabama in the productive Southeast peanut growing region of the US.
Olam’s acquisition of Brooks, which follows its acquisition of US peanut sheller McCleskey Mills Inc. in December 2014, further integrates its value chain into direct farm procurement and shelling. It strengthens Olam’s market position as the third largest peanut sheller in the US and helps expand its sourcing network into new areas in Alabama and Florida. With Brooks, Olam can further differentiate its product offering to customers globally and mitigate climate risks with a diversified presence across different growing areas.
President of Olam’s global peanut business, Anupam Jindel, said: “We are pleased to have the opportunity to acquire Brooks’ procurement and processing capabilities, which complement our footprint in the US and significantly strengthen our network and product offerings to our customers and growers. Given our strengths in the US peanut industry and global marketing reach, we feel quite confident that we will be able to take Brooks to its full potential fairly quickly.”
Said Barrett Brooks, President of Brooks: “Olam has a significant global presence in the peanut industry and we are excited to be joining their team. I believe the combination of our modern processing assets and strong procurement franchise with Olam’s expertise in peanut processing, marketing and risk management will be a very successful one.”
Joe West, Head of Olam’s US peanut shelling operations, said: “The acquisition will be earnings and talent accretive from the beginning. Brooks has a strong leadership team which will continue to manage the operations from Alabama and also help extract synergy value with our existing peanut business. Our combined team will be able to offer highly differentiated products like hi-oleic, bar-ready peanuts to our discerning customers and also our high quality seed to Brooks’ growers, while capitalising on the growth prospects in the industry.”
The acquisition will be funded by a combination of internal accruals and existing debt facilities. Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed by Q3 2016. It is also expected to be earnings accretive in 2016 and meet the targeted EBITDA on Invested Capital range of 13.0% to 16.0% from the first full year of operations in 2017.
