Speculation has resurfaced that PAI Partners (PAI Partners SAS) is seeking to offload its stake in the Froneri ice-cream joint venture (Froneri Limited) with Nestlé S.A. (SWX:NESN). Investor heavyweight Goldman Sachs (The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)) has been linked with an interest to take over the 50% holding in Froneri that PAI Partners owns, according to unnamed sources for the Financial Times. The publication's sources have put a EUR 15 billion ($17.1 billion) valuation on the potential deal, including debt.
The FT added that the asset-management division of Goldman Sachs would be the lead investor in a so-called continuation fund to be set up by PAI Partners. Both investors declined to comment when contacted by Just Food on August 1, 2025 as the FT said the transaction could be signed off as soon as September. UK-based Froneri was set up in 2016 when Nestle merged its European ice-cream operations with R&R Ice Cream, another UK business owned by PAI Partners.
Nestle then sold its US ice-cream operations the same year - 2019 - to Froneri. A couple of reports also emerged last year that PAI Partners was weighing up the future of its Froneri stake. The first surfaced in January 2024, with Bloomberg sources suggesting the private-equity firm was in the 'early stages' of assessing options for its stake in Froneri.
Those same sources said at the time that Nestle was expected to retain its interest. Nestle also declined Just Food's request for comment on the new speculation. Froneri had not responded.
Meanwhile, following the January report, another emerged from Bloomberg in May of that year suggesting a deal was being consider by PAI Partners along similar lines of what is now being proposed by the FT sources. The FT went on to suggest in its report that PAI Partners had already put part of its 50% Froneri stake in a continuation vehicle in 2019, adding that fund is now approaching the end of its life cycle.
Nestlé S.A. is the world's leading agri-food group. Net sales break down by category of products as follows:
- powdered and liquid beverages (26.9%): soluble coffees (Nescafé and Starbucks brands), coffee in capsules (Nespresso), chocolate drinks (Nesquik, Milo, etc.), tea drinks (Nestea), etc.;
- pet food (20.7%): brands such as Purina, Friskies, Felix, etc.;
- pharmaceutical, nutrition and well-being products (16.6%): nutritional supplements (Resource, Boost, Nutren, Optifast, Peptamen brands, etc.), infant and maternal nutrition products (NAN, illuma, Cerelac, Nido, Gerber), ketogenic beverages (BrainXpert), (Nesquick, Fitness, Cheerios, Lion, etc.), etc.;
- ready meals and seasoning products (11.7%): frozen and chilled dishes (Lean Cuisine, Hot Pockets and Stouffer's brands), soups (Maggi), etc.;
- dairy products and ice cream (11.4%): powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk, yoghurt and cream desserts, ice cream (Nido, Nesvita, Carnation, La Laitière, Coffee Mate, Nestlé Ice Cream, Dreyers, Häagen-Dazs, Extrême brands, etc.);
- chocolates, sweets and biscuits (9.2%): Kit Kat, Smarties, Cailler, Terrafertil, etc. brands;
- bottled waters (3.5%): Nestlé Pure Life, Vittel, Perrier, S. Pellegrino, etc. brands.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Switzerland (1.2%), the United Kingdom (4%), France (3.8%), Germany (2.2%), Europe (13.1%), the United States and Canada (35.2%), China (5.9%), Brazil (4.4%), Mexico (4.2%), Chile (1.2%), Latin America (3.8%), Philippines (2.9%), India (2.2%), Australia (1.6%) and Oceania (14.3%).
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