French PE firm Pai Partners to buy R&R Ice Cream for reported $1.1 bn

French private equity firm Pai Partners today agreed to buy British ice cream maker R&R Ice Cream from rival Oaktree Capital in a reported €850-million ($1.1 billion) deal.

Though neither PE firm disclosed the financial terms of the deal, but citing a source, Reuters reported that Paris-based Pai Partners will pay about €850 million.

Yorkshire-based R&R, which makes 2,700 different products, is Europe's biggest producer of ice cream by volume and holds around 10 per cent share of the British market.

R&R was originally formed by the 1985 merger between Germany's Roncadin and Richmond Ice Cream of the UK.

Apart from its own brands, R&R manufactures products for many major retailers like Tesco and Asda in the UK, Aldi and Edeka in Germany and Carrefour and Leader Price in France.

It also manufactures a whole range of brands, some of which it owns and some of others that it manages together with other brand owners such as Nestlé and Thorntons in the UK and Landliebe and Del Monte in Europe.

It produces After Eight, FAB lollies, Smarties, Landliebe, Nasch, Kelly's, Zielona Budka, Ribena lollies, Thorntons and Skinny at its eleven state-of the-art factories in the UK, Germany, France and Poland.

R&R launched a range of Mondelez International brands including Milka, Toblerone, Daim, Oreo and Philadelphia across 10 European countries.

The company had 2012 sales of €600 million.

''We are very excited to be partnering with PAI and working together on our next phase of development as we continue with our growth strategy across our brands,'' said, James Lambert, CEO and executive chairman of R&R.

''R&R is a market-leading company with a strong portfolio of innovative products and excellent potential to expand in the UK and internationally. The food and consumer brands sector is a core area of investment focus and expertise for PAI and we are delighted to be investing in R&R,'' said, Colm O'Sullivan, partner at PAI Partners.