Archer Daniels Midland among bidders for German flavours company Wild

Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) one of the world's largest agricultural group, is among the bidders for Rudolf Wild GmbH & Co. KG, in a deal that values the German food flavours and ingredients maker at €1.5 billion ($2.04 billion), Reuters yesterday reported, citing sources familiar with the deal.

Rudolf Wild GmbH, owned by Hans-Peter Wild and US private equity firm KKR & Co were early this year exploring a possible sale or an initial public offering with a valuation of around $2 billion.

Other bidders for the company include UK-based food ingredients group Tate & Lyle, Swiss scents and flavours firm Givaudan, Japanese seasonings maker Ajinomoto and Swedish private equity firm EQT Partners.

The move comes barely a month after German scents and flavours maker Symrise tabled a binding offer to buy French food ingredients maker Diana Group from private equity firm Ardian for €1.3 billion. (See: German scents, flavours maker Symrise to buy Diana Group for $1.8 bn)

Zug, Switzerland-based Wild is a leading private producer of natural flavours and ingredients for the food and beverages industry.

Founded in 1931 by Rudolf Wild as Zick-Zack Werk Rudolf Wild in Heidelberg, Germany, the company was renamed to Wild Flavors GmbH & Co.in 2001 and moved its headquarters to Sisseln near Zug in Switzerland in 2005.

Since the past 80 years, the company has grown to become the world's sixth-biggest flavours maker through a series of strategic acquisitions in Europe, Asia and North America.

Dr. Hans-Peter Wild, current chairman and son of founder Rudolf Wild, sold a 35-per cent stake in Wild in 2010 to KKR & Co for an undisclosed sum.

The Deutsche SiSi-Werke, with its brand product Capri Sonne / Capri Sun, INDAG GmbH, and WILD Dairy Ingredients with its fruit preparation businesses in Germany, France and Poland were not part of the transaction.

Wild, which has annual sales of around €900 million, also supplies natural-flavour ingredients for the beverages industry, known as the flavor system as well as individual components such as flavours and extracts, natural colours, concentrates, sweetening systems, as well as specialty ingredients, such as functional flavours.

Through its other companies in the US and Canada, Wild is also a supplier for cereal, snack, and processed foods in the American markets.

Founded in 1902 by George Archer and John Daniels, ADM is one of the world's largest agricultural processors with more than 270 processing plants, 420 crop procurement facilities and a large crop transportation network.

With annual sales of $89.8 billion and market cap of $28.5 billion, ADM is also one of the world's leading producers of food ingredients.