VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, FRANCE – The Bonduelle Group is in talks to sell a majority stake in its Bonduelle Americas Long Life (BALL) business unit to Canadian institutional investors Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). The buyers would acquire a 65% stake in the business unit for C$850 million ($663 million), according to The Bonduelle Group.

BALL processes canned and frozen vegetables and fruits that are sold primarily by private label brands in North America. The business includes six processing plants in Canada and four in the United States and had sales of C$943 million ($736 million) in fiscal year 2020-2021.

The Bonduelle Group announced it was putting the BALL unit under strategic review in September 2021.

“The transaction with the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and CDPQ would allow BALL to pursue its development in a North American market that is constantly consolidating and to finance its growth and profitability investments, without any new allocation of capital by the Bonduelle Group,” said Guillaume Debrosse, chief executive officer of the Bonduelle Group. “As a minority shareholder, Bonduelle will ultimately benefit from 35% of the value created by this business.”

Fonds de solidarité FTQ is a private capital company based in Quebec. Its main mission is to contribute to Quebec's economic growth by creating, maintaining or safeguarding jobs through investment in businesses in all sectors of Quebec's economy, according to the company. It has approximately C$18.3 billion ($14.3 billion) in assets.