Mystery multimillion-dollar bid for Maggie Beer hampers
The identity of a multinational consumer goods player making its move on a key Maggie Beer Holdings business remains a mystery.
A prominent multinational consumer goods business with operations in the Australia Pacific region’s hampers and gifting market is making its move on a key branch of the Maggie Beer Holdings business.
News of the $10 million bid today for Maggie Beer’s shares in Hampers and Gifts Australia followed an ASX announcement on February 17 saying the company was launching a strategic review of the business.
A sale would leave Maggie Beer – named after the South Australian celebrity chef who sits on the company’s board – even more slim lined after it sold off its dairy business Paris Creek Farms in 2025 suffering a substantial loss in the transaction.
But today’s announcement failed to reveal the name of the potential buyer for the hampers and gifts arm with the Maggie Beer announcement stating that “the counterparty’s identity is not information that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of the entity’s securities”.
The latest development comes on the back of Maggie Beer Holdings reporting in February that it had achieved a profit for the first time since the 2023 financial year.
You might like
After reporting losses on top of losses since the FY23 profit of $766,000, the company announced a net profit after tax of $398,000.
In February 2024, a $6 million half year loss was recorded when its dairy business, Paris Creek Farms, crushed the company’s profits.
The company eventually sold that business in June last year for $500,000. It was a tremendous loss in value for the dairy arm, which was bought by MBH (formerly called Longtable Group) for $34 million in 2017.
At the time, non-executive chair of Maggie Beer Holdings Mark Lindh said the profit was the result of “significant operational and structural reforms undertaken across the business over the last 12 months”.
Stay informed, daily
“We have taken over $2 million of costs out of the business, undertaken a process of board renewal and completed a successful, shareholder supported placement delivering $11.5 million in cashflow improvement,” he said.
In the announcement to the ASX today, Maggie Beer said there would now be a time for “due diligence”, working through funding arrangements and coming up with an agreement, and if all goes well the offer would be offered for shareholder approval.
The announcement also said that if there were no better proposals on the table, the board intended recommending the sale.
It would mean the business would be sold for $10 million, with $8 million up front and the other $2 million based on the “performance” of the hampers and gifts business over a 12-month period.
Lindh today welcomed the plan saying “the board is pleased to have secured a proposal to acquire the HGA Business as a result of our strategic review process”.
“The proposal is consistent with our strategy of strengthening our balance sheet and providing optionality to continue to grow our core FMCG business division through both acquisition and organic growth.”
If the process is successful, a sale subject to conditions was expected to be signed by July 31, 2026.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
