Houlihan Lokey Advises Florida Food Products

Houlihan Lokey's Consumer, Food & Retail Group is pleased to announce that Florida Food Products (FFP), a portfolio company of Kainos Capital, has been acquired by MidOcean Partners. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction closed on September 6, 2018.

This deal represents another successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the food & beverage industry.

Founded in 1954 and headquartered in Eustis, Florida, FFP is a leading manufacturer of healthy, natural, clean label ingredients and is the market leader in the clean label cure market. Clean label cures are used for a wide variety of end market uses, including packaged meat, foodservice, private label and branded CPG meats, as well as premium pet foods. FFP offers appealing alternatives to synthetic meat ingredients, including curing agents, accelerators, and stabilizers as well as plant-based flavor and color enhancement products across a variety of applications, including beverage, meat and meat alternatives, savory foods, sauces and dressings, pet care, sports nutrition, and baked goods.

Kainos Capital is a middle-market private equity firm with an exclusive focus on the food and consumer sector. The Kainos team has extensive investment and operating experience in the industry, having invested more than $2 billion of equity in more than 60 transactions with a total transaction value of more than $10 billion. The firm's strategy is to build a diversified portfolio of growing and strategically relevant food and consumer businesses that trade buyers would like to acquire.

Established in 2003, MidOcean Partners is a premier New York-based alternative asset manager that specializes in middle-market private equity and alternative credit investments. Since inception, the focus of the private equity funds has been on high-quality middle-market companies with attractive strategic, operational, and financial growth opportunities in the consumer and business services sectors. MidOcean Credit Partners was launched in 2009 and manages approximately $8 billion across a series of alternative credit strategies, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), and customized, separately managed accounts as of July 31, 2018.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to FFP and assisted in structuring and negotiating the transaction on its behalf.