Americold Among Bidders for Rival Henningsen Cold Storage

(Bloomberg) -- Americold Realty Trust, a provider of food-distribution services, is among bidders vying to buy Henningsen Cold Storage Co., which could fetch more than $500 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Final bids for closely held Henningsen are due in coming weeks, and Americold is set to compete against potential suitors including infrastructure funds, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

Angie Hansen, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Americold, declined to comment. Henningsen didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Waldemar F. Henningsen Sr. founded his Hillsboro, Oregon-based company in 1923. It’s now led by President Paul Henningsen, who succeeded his cousin Mike Henningsen in 2018. The company focuses on providing cold-storage services -- specifically warehousing and transportation -- in the Pacific Northwest and upper western states.

Demand for fresh food, and in turn cold storage, has remained robust amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Americold, a real estate investment trust with a market value of roughly $6.7 billion, has seen its shares fall 4.9% this year, outperforming the S&P 500 index, which has declined about 13%.

‘What They Eat’

“Typically, the general supply of food is not meaningfully impacted by the macroeconomic climate,” Chief Executive Officer Fred Boehler said on an earnings conference call last week. “People are going to eat, but what they eat and where they eat may change.”

Americold has been acquisitive in recent years. Last year, it acquired Cloverleaf Cold Storage, a U.S. rival, for $1.24 billion from Blackstone Group Inc. In January, it paid $56 million for a facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, and completed its purchase of Canada’s Nova Cold Logistics from Brookfield Business Partners LP. In March, it bought a stake in Brazil’s SuperFrio Armazens Gerais SA as part of a strategic joint venture.

Henningsen isn’t the only cold-storage business in play. Canada’s VersaCold is exploring options including a sale, Bloomberg reported in March.

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