Eight Fifty Food Group, the company that owns Grimsby, United Kingdom-based Young’s Seafood, is close to appointing JP Morgan and Jefferies to help it land a London Stock Exchange listing, according to media reports.
Following on from its story earlier in this month that Eight Fifty is in talks about starting preparations for an initial public offering (IPO), Sky News reported the two investment banking groups were being lined up for the role.
As previously reported by the broadcaster, a formal decision to proceed with a flotation has yet to be made, but if it goes ahead, it would not take place until next year.
Eight Fifty, which also owns pork processing business Karro Food Group, is itself owned by the private equity firm CapVest Partners. The company has annual sales of approximately GBP 1.4 billion (USD 1.8 billion, EUR 1.5 billion), with around GBP 550 million (USD 705.1 million, EUR 602.5 million) generated by Young’s.
Combined, Eight Fifty employs more than 7,500 people across 19 sites in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Sky News added that it was unclear whether CapVest might also seek to gauge the interest of potential buyers of the company, alongside the preparations for a stock market listing.
CapVest owned Young’s between 2002 and 2008. It re-purchased the business in July last year, and then aligned it with Karro under the new Eight Fifty multi-protein group.
