annual sales, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and
net profit.
Results converge to value food company 1.1 to 1.4 times its sales, 15 times its EBITDA,
24 times its net profit. There is no significant difference of “valuation to turnover” ratios
among M&A involving only French firms and M&A involving companies from different
countries.
Corporate valuation may differ according to food sub-sector:
- Valuations in the wine and spirit sector exhibit significantly larger figures than
valuations in the other food sub-sectors. A wine and spirit company is worth about
2.5 to 4 times its sales.
- In contrast, retail company is worth only 0.5 to 0.6 times its sales. However,
specialized retail firms seem to be valued at higher levels.
M&A were mainly involving a French and a non French company over the period. So,
transactions are more and more international.
The findings provide signs about corporate value and the evolution of M&A, so
managers have further benchmarks to value corporations they want to buy or sell. The
findings also confirm the internationalization of food companies during the last years.
Further research could be done to compare corporate valuation in Europe and North
America. Such research would be very useful since the 1996-2001 period exhibits
increasing international M&A among companies from different countries.
Sustainable Agribusiness: Developing Local Solutions to Global Challenges
in the Regional Agribusiness Sector in Australia
Peter Hansford, John Cary and Emma Coath
This paper describes the process of engaging agribusiness communities in the State of
Victoria in Australia, where the State Government is actively encouraging the
development and maintenance of sustainable networks of agribusiness-related entities
in regional and rural areas. The idea of sustainable communities, dependent on
agribusiness, is based on the need for a broad social sustainability reflecting
responsiveness to wider social and economic change. Agribusiness forums have
brought agribusiness leaders together to allow communities to better influence their own
destiny by developing relationships and networks between synergistic and competing
businesses, and to encourage locally based businesses to explore export opportunities.