Apheon & Groupe Lfpi take majority stake in Haudecoeur

Apheon agreed to transfer its holding in Haudecoeur from its MidCap Buyout IV fund to Apheon TMC HDC Long Term Value Fund, a newly raised continuation vehicle, in a GP-led secondary transaction that remained subject to regulatory approvals. The structure allowed the firm to keep a majority of around 65% in a company it had held since 2019, while giving its original fund’s investors the choice between realising their position and remaining exposed through the new vehicle. LFPI, a co-investor in the 2019 buyout, entered as a significant minority shareholder with 15 to 20%, and the Haudecoeur family and management, led by chief executive Jean-Jacques Caspari, reinvested for a combined 15 to 20%. The consideration was paid in cash. The continuation fund closed on aggregate commitments of 435 million euros, raised to hold two assets: Haudecoeur and TMC, the Dutch R&D consultancy Apheon also owned. Funds managed or advised by HarbourVest Partners led the transaction, with LFPI entering alongside for Haudecoeur and MML Capital for TMC. Senior debt in two tranches, at around 4.25 times EBITDA, was provided by Société Générale, Crédit Agricole Île-de-France and LCL. Founded in 1932 and headquartered in La Courneuve, north of Paris, Haudecoeur sources, produces and distributes ethnic food. Its range covers rice, starches, spices, dried fruits and pulses, more than 1,500 product lines sold under its own brands and those of its partners. It buys from producing countries, processes part of the range at its industrial site in La Courneuve, and delivers from warehouses in the Paris region and the south of France. Its customers are specialist grocers, hypermarkets and supermarkets, and the consumers of Maghrebi, Asian, African and Caribbean origin who buy these products. It employs around 300 people and generated revenue of €285m in 2024, more than double the level of 2018. That growth came from both organic expansion and acquisitions: Palais Impérial in 2020, Coexo in 2021 and Cepasco in 2024, followed in July 2026 by Natur Food in Germany and Heliadis in Belgium, the group’s first moves outside France. The European market for ethnic food remains fragmented, served country by country by operators whose knowledge of what each community buys is built locally and whose supplier relationships do not transfer easily. Consolidating it requires acquiring those operators rather than exporting an existing range, which is what the additional capital and the longer holding period were intended to fund. For Apheon, the structure kept exposure to an asset it had doubled in size while establishing a market price through the entry of a minority investor. Rothschild & Co and Raphaël Financial Advisory advised Apheon, with Rabobank acting as sole adviser to LFPI, while Evercore led the fundraising for the continuation vehicle.

In the past, the company underwent an LBO led by Apheon in 2019, and continued an active consolidation strategy by notably acquiring Palais Impérial (2020).