‘Sale of Kuwait food company Americana falters’

Reuters/LondonThe sale of Kuwaiti food company Americana is close to being put on hold, weighed down by differences on price and a difficult environment for deal-making, three sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Americana, which is backed by Kuwait’s billionaire al-Kharafi family, operates franchises for chains including KFC and Pizza Hut. The group has a market value of 1.13bn dinars ($3.84bn). Reuters reported in April last year that Americana was exploring a sale with investment bank Rothschild. Private equity funds KKR and CVC were among the main contenders for the asset, in a lengthy bidding process that also saw interest from Saudi food producer Savola Group among others. Americana said in November last year that the Kharafis were in preliminary talks with “various parties”. But the sale is faltering as offers have so far failed to meet price expectations and buyers struggled to reach agreement with the backing family. Two of the sources cautioned that the deal may not be totally dead and an agreement could still be reached. “It remains to be seen if it comes back at a later date. But at the moment we have no traction on this deal at all,” one source familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. CVC declined to comment. MAK, the private investment company backing Americana, was not immediately available to comment, while KKR  could also not immediately be reached for comment.