New Zealand’s biggest biscuit firm could be sold

Pacific Equity Partners has appointed two banks to conduct a strategic review of New Zealand’s biggest biscuit-maker Griffin’s Foods.

UBS, which advised French food group Danone when it sold the business to PEP back in March 2006, is on the ticket along with Goldman Sachs, which was hired partly for its strong North American links, The Australian newspaper reported yesterday.

Griffin’s — which makes well-known brands of biscuits such as Chocolate Chippies, Meal Mates, Toffee Pops and Gingernuts and the Eta and Nice & Natural snack brands — could sell for about $1.26 billion, the newspaper reported.

Food giants Nestle and Kraft would be among logical suitors.

Global snack and confectionery company Kraft owned Nabisco, which in turn owned Griffin’s from 1962 until 1990, but Kraft had also spent a lot of money to buy Cadbury.

Other potential buyers might include other private equity groups, trans-Tasman food giant Goodman Fielder, or Chinese buyers such as Bright Food, which looked at Blackstone’s United Biscuits earlier this year.