Apax Partners to buy US-based Advantage Sales and Marketing

Private equity group Apax Partners yesterday agreed to buy a majority stake in Advantage Sales and Marketing (ASM), a US-based sales and marketing firm from buyout firms J W Childs Associates and BAML Capital Partners (Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity), in a deal reportedly worth around $1.8 billion.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, but Bloomberg today reported that the deal has been transacted for around $1.8 billion, citing an unnamed source.

Founded in 1987 and based in Irvine, California, ASM is one of North America's largest sales and marketing agency. It provides outsourced sales, merchandising, category management and marketing services to manufacturers, suppliers, and producers of food products and consumer packaged goods. It also offers brand management, consumer marketing, financial management, supply chain, technology, and retail services.

ASM  specialises in client and customer events, publications and assisted-selling services for the grocery, drugstore, club, convenience, natural/specialty, consumer electronic and home centre industries.

Some of its top clients include Wal-Mart Stores, Sam's Club, PepsiCo, Del Monte Foods, Unilever, Mars, J M Smucker Co, Ralcorp/Post Cereals, Energizer, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline.

For 2010 fiscal, ASM had revenues of approximately $1 billion and net income of around $180 million.