Organic and natural products company Hain Celestial Group has introduced plans to part ways with its protein providing subsidiary, as it entered into a definitive agreement to sell all of its equity interest in Hain Pure Protein Corporation to Aterian Investment Partners III, LP. The deal, which includes the FreeBird™ and Empire® Kosher businesses, involves a purchase price of $80 million.
“We are pleased to have entered into an agreement for the sale of our remaining Hain Pure Protein businesses,” commented Mark L. Schiller, Hain Celestial's President and Chief Executive Officer.
The deal is still subject to adjustments but is expected to close by the end of the company’s fiscal year on June 30, 2019, according to the company’s press release.
”This divestiture is another step forward in simplifying our organization aligned with our transformational strategic plan as we aggressively pursue margin enhancing initiatives to fuel long-term sustainable growth and profitability,” Schiller continued. “We expect the sale of Hain Pure Protein to also help improve our balance sheet as we generate cash from the sale with which we plan to use in part to pay down debt. We believe these non-core brands will generate better results under the ownership of an organization that is focused on the protein category.”
Centerview Partners acted as a financial advisor to Hain Celestial.
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