At the end of last week, Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board and Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee have granted approval for the proposed acquisition of United Malt Group by the French company Malteries Soufflet, setting the stage for the creation of the world's leading malt producer.
Malteries Soufflet, a subsidiary of the French agribusiness InVivo, announced its intention in March of this year to acquire United Malt Group Ltd for AUD 1.5 billion (USD 950m). (inside.beer, 27.3.2023) This strategic move consolidates the second and fourth positions in the global malt market, establishing the world's largest malting group with an annual production volume of approximately 3.6 million tons of malt. The only larger competitor remaining is the current market leader, Boortmalt, with an annual malt production of about 3 million tons, followed by Malteurop, which produces approximately 2.3 million tons.
"Consequently, as all other equity financing approvals have been obtained, the condition precedent [...] of the scheme implementation agreement has been fulfilled," stated United Malt last Friday. After the Federal Court issued orders on Monday approving the members' scheme of arrangement, which involves the acquisition of all ordinary shares in United Malt by Malteries Soufflet SAS, the company has been officially delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange and removed from the S&P/ASX 200 index.
