P&P-backed Suba acquires US seed company

Paine & Partners-backed speciality vegetable and legume seed producer, Suba Seeds, has acquired Brotherton Seed for an undisclosed price.

Brotherton breeds and produces pea and bean seeds for the North American processing market and operates two production facilities in Washington State.

“The acquisition of Brotherton Seed is a great next step for Suba as it looks to expand its presence and differentiated offering in the growing global market for speciality vegetable seed,” said Angelo Dassos, partner at Paine & Partners and Suba Seed board member, in a statement.

Suba Seeds produces, packs and distributes speciality vegetable seeds for consumers and a variety of global seed companies.

“We see significant growth potential in this combination, driven by cross selling and production opportunities, both by leveraging the expanded grower network and through expanding Suba’s offering to its international customer base,”said Suba Seed chief executive Marcello Tumedei.

Agribusiness-focused private equity firm Paine & Partners acquired Suba Seed through its $893 million Fund IV in October last year. At the time, Agri Investor reported that the firm planned to expand into higher margin products and make strategic acquisitions in order to grow the company’s market share.

Fund IV closed in January 2015, exceeding its $800 million target. It is the largest private equity fund to date focused solely on food and agribusiness.