Capital management firm get hands on snack food company

Lunar Capital Management on Thursday announced that it has completed the acquisition of a majority interest in Guizhou Yonghong Food Co Ltd, a leading player in the snack food industry.

Established in 1984, Yonghong produces and distributes processed beef products under the brand name of "Bullhead" or "Niutou".

Lunar Capital's operations team will also take over the management of the business and work closely with the three co-founders of Yonghong, who retain a substantial minority stake. Eric Yi Ming, a Lunar Capital Sector Partner, will lead the integration process and be seconded to Yonghong as CEO, while other Lunar Capital professionals will be seconded to assist in building the management team.

Yi has over 25 years of experience in the consumer sector and has assumed key executive positions in Asia, managing well-known brands including Marlboro, Heineken, Tiger Beer, Tropicana and Dole Juice.

In addition, Lunar Capital will open a new office in Guizhou Province to provide additional staffing and support to Yonghong, making the firm one of the earliest private equity entrants to Guizhou since Lunar Capital first established its presence in Chengdu in 2009.

Derek Sulger, Managing Partner of Lunar Capital, and set to assume the role of chairman of Yonghong, said "Lunar Capital has been focused on acquiring businesses with strong brands and a reputation for quality and safety that appeal to China's growing consumer base. For over a year, we have worked together with the co-founders of Yonghong to structure a transaction that will give Lunar Capital the control necessary to take Yonghong to a new scale, while retaining the support and expertise of the three co-founders and their families who have worked so hard over the past 30 years to build this industry leader."

Lunar Capital currently holds stakes in other synergistic businesses in the branded beverage, food packaging, meat processing and other consumer sectors which share many of the same operational opportunities and challenges as Yonghong.

Yonghong is headquartered in the county of Huishui near Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou Province, in the Southwest of China. The company specializes in the development, production and sales of processed meat foods, and owns "Bullhead" or "Niutou", the most established beef jerky brand in China.