Houlihan Lokey Advises Javo

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Javo Beverage Company (Javo), a portfolio company of Falconhead Capital, has been acquired by Florida Food Products (FFP), a portfolio company of Ardian and MidOcean Partners. The transaction closed on July 25, 2022.

Javo is a leading natural extractor of clean label coffee, tea, and botanicals with a focus on beverage applications. Javo is widely recognized for the company’s unique extraction capabilities that facilitate the delivery of exceptional cold brew coffee solutions to industry-leading consumer brands, manufacturers, and restaurants. The company is headquartered in Vista, California, and has manufacturing facilities in Vista and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Founded in 1954, FFP is one of the world’s largest, independent providers of natural ingredients. FFP formulates and produces innovative clean label fruit, vegetable, and botanical based ingredients serving the food, beverage, and health end markets. FFP’s products offer compelling alternatives to chemically derived ingredients and can enhance such things as taste, texture, shelf life, moisture, and color. FFP operates facilities across the country and partners with some of the most respected consumer brands, manufacturers, and food service providers.

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house, managing or advising $130 billion of assets on behalf of more than 1,300 clients globally. Ardian’s broad expertise, spanning private equity, real assets, and credit, enables it to offer a wide range of investment opportunities and respond flexibly to clients’ differing needs. Through Ardian Customized Solutions, Ardian creates bespoke portfolios that allow institutional clients to specify the precise mix of assets they require and to gain access to funds managed by leading third-party sponsors. Ardian also provides a specialist service for private clients through Ardian Private Wealth Solutions. Ardian is majority-owned by its employees and places great emphasis on developing its people and fostering a collaborative culture based on collective intelligence. Ardian employs 900+ employees spread across 15 offices in Europe, the Americas, and Asia who are strongly committed to the principles of responsible investment and are determined to make finance a force for good in society. Ardian’s goal is to deliver excellent investment performance combined with high ethical standards and social responsibility.

MidOcean Partners is a premier New York–based alternative asset manager specializing in middle-market private equity and alternative credit investments. Since its inception in 2003, MidOcean Private Equity has targeted investments in high-quality middle-market companies in the consumer and business services sectors. MidOcean Credit Partners was launched in 2009 and currently manages a series of alternative credit strategies, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), and customized separately managed accounts.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Javo and assisted in structuring and negotiating the transaction on its behalf. This deal represents another successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the consumer, food, and retail space.