The owner of US-based avocado products maker Chosen Foods is reportedly eyeing a sale of the business for over $600m.
Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Butterfly Equity, which took a majority stake in Chosen Foods in 2021, is looking at selling off the company, according to Reuters.
Chosen Foods is working with investment banks Morgan Stanley and Bank of America on its sale process that is expected to initiate later this year, unnamed sources close to the matter told the news agency.
The avocado oil maker generates full-year EBITDA of about $50m, the sources told Reuters.
Butterfly Equity declined to comment when approached by Just Food.
Set up in 2016 by co-CEOs Dustin Beck and Adam Waglay, the Beverly Hills-based investor struck a $500m-plus deal for Bolthouse Farms a couple of years after launching its first fund in 2017.
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With more than $4bn in assets under management through blind-pool funds and co-investment, Butterfly is for the time being focused on North America, with a portfolio encompassing avocado cooking oil, dairy ingredients, fish farming, fruit juices and fresh veg, along with vitamins, minerals and supplements (VMS).
When asked about the firm’s selling strategy during an interview with Just Food last month, Beck said: “On exits, we have some companies that are performing really well. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have another one or two exits this year.
“A lot of those have at least been proactive calls to us on specific assets that motivate us to go and run a sell-side process – we’re in the middle of one of those right now.”
Chosen Foods, founded in 2011 by Carsten Hagen, George Todd and Sioma Waisburd, produces avocado oil, cooking sprays, mayonnaise, dressings, guacamole, and salsa.
