PAI Partners would be considering "some options" to sell its stake in Froneri, the ice cream company it has with Nestlé and which includes brands such as Haagen-Dazs. The rumor comes from sources close to the private equity company relaunched by Bloomberg.

The same sources point out that PAI Partners could PAI could initiate a so-called "double track" process in the second half of the year, exploring both the sale and the initial public offering of its stake in the company. Nestlé, on the other hand, should keep its stake in Froneri, a company divided equally at 50%: according to the first calculations, it is estimated an estimate of 10 billion dollars for the share of PAI Partners.

Froneri in Italy is heir to the glorious Motta brand. Today the group has 3 factories in Italy (Milan, Ferentino and Terni) and sells well-known brands, such as Gelati Motta, Nui, Coppa del Nonno, Maxibon, Antica Gelateria del Corso.

The UK-based parent company was created in 2016 when Nestlé merged its European ice cream business with R&R Ice Cream, another UK company owned by PAI Partners. The transaction on Froneri has combined the activities of Nestlé and R&R in the ice cream sector in Europe, the Middle East, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa. While in 2016 the United States and Israel were not included, three years later, in 2019, the latter also passed under Froneri. 

Also in 2019, Nestlé sold its ice cream business in the United States to Froneri: however, the world’s largest food company has maintained its ice cream business in Canada, Latin America and Asia.

Froneri is in competition with the ice cream sector managed by Unilever: since Hein Schumacher became CEO of Unilever exactly a year ago. Speculation has intensified on a sale of the company’s nutrition and ice cream divisions. Schumacher has declared that the priority is the improvement of the operating performances and, in october, Unilever has named Peter ter Kulve to head of the division ice cream that, however, has recorded poor performances.

Nestlé reports its sales of ice-cream within the ice-cream and dairy products segment, whose turnover in the financial year 2022 was 11.3 billion Swiss francs, equal to over 12 billion Euros, 12% of the total turnover of the group. Ice cream generated CHF 930 million (over 995 million Euros), an increase of 8.2% over the previous year. In the third quarter and in the nine months until october 2023, Nestlé recorded sales of ice cream and dairy products of CHF 8.1 billion (over 8.6 billion Euros), slightly down on CHF 8.3 billion (almost 8.9 billion Euros) a year earlier.

PAI, based in Paris, has pursued these months with a series of splits from large companies collecting 7.1 billion Euro for its last fund in November 2023: the eventual sale of the participation of PAI would join to the 73 billion dollars of mergers and acquisitions in the alimentary field in the last 12 months with a possibility even so remote to quote in Stock exchange entering with a nice loot in pocket.