PRINT THIS PAGE Bridgepoint's WT Foods sells Noon Products to Ireland-based Kerry Group08/08/2005. Source: AltAssets. 
 Bridgepoint portfolio company WT Foods has sold its unit Noon Products, a producer of ethnic, chilled ready meals, to quoted global ingredients, flavours and consumer foods business Kerry Group for £124m. Bridgepoint acquired WT Foods Group in a £102m buy-out and stock exchange de-listing in 2001.
Clive Sharpe, chief executive of WT Foods, said, 'Noon Products has grown organically, through the acquisition of Marston Valley Foods in August 2003 and has benefited from significant investment in its manufacturing infrastructure. It will make an ideal strategic platform for Kerry to enter the ethnic chilled convenience foods market.'
Following the disposal of Noon Products, Bridgepoint retains an equity interest in WT Foods, which will comprise three brands: Afro-Caribbean food and drink manufacturer Enco, Oriental products supplier Chadha, and Funnybones, which provides ethnic foods for the foodservice market.
Bridgepoint, together with Permira, has also sold Holmes Place's Iberian business, comprised of 15 health and fitness clubs in Spain and Portugal, to a consortium of Iberian private equity investors including Nmas1, Mercapital and Explorer Investments in a €110m transaction. Bridgepoint and Permira acquired Holmes Place in 2003.
Pan-European private equity firm Bridgepoint focuses on investments in mid-market companies valued up to €750m. Earlier this year the firm recently closed its €2.5bn Bridgepoint Europe III fund. Noon Products is the third trade sale announced by Bridgepoint this month, following the sale of UK parcel delivery business Lynx Express to UPS in a deal totalling £55.5m, and the sale of Molton Brown to Kao Corporation of Japan in a transaction totalling £170m.
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