• Confirmatory offers expected around month-end, signing possible by Christmas
• Cobepa drops out of bidding

Italian confectionery company Salpa Special Food is seeing bidders Bregal and Apheon go head-to-head in the second round of its sale process, six sources familiar with the situation told Mergermarket.

Confirmatory offers are due between the end of October and the beginning of November, the sources said, and vendor Equinox intends to select the winner a week later. A signing is possible before the Christmas break, they added.

First-round bids in the sponsor-heavy auction came in at EUR 280m, the sources said. However, second-round bids are expected to be lower since sellside advisor CP Advisors recently provided updated financials for this year which are than original estimates, two of the sources said without disclosing figures.

Salpa has been marketed off EUR 23m in 2023 EBITDA, as first reported by this news service.

A third private equity bidder, Cobepa, was admitted to this stage of the auction, as reported, but has recently exited the process, two of the sources said.

However, both Bregal and Apheon are very committed to this dossier, these sources said, adding that this auction has been very competitive due to strong investor appetite for food-sector assets like Salpa.

The private equity vendor Equinox acquired a 63% stake in the business from the Cherubini family in 2021. It has decided to put the confectionery company back on the market due to its strong growth, as reported.

According to Mergermarket‘s Likely to Exit (LTE) predictive algorithm*, Salpa Special Food has a score of 59 out of 100 at the time of publication.

Equinox and Salpa declined to comment. CP Advisors, Bregal, Apheon and Cobepa did not return requests for comment.

*Mergermarket’s LTE predictive analytics assign a score to sponsor-backed companies to help track and predict when an exit could occur through M&A, an IPO, a direct listing or a deSPAC transaction.