Lifeway Foods, struggling with a family dispute but not financially, has been offered a buyout by France’s Danone SA, which already is a significant shareholder in the kefir company.
Danone sent a letter to Lifeway offering $25 a share in cash, according to an SEC 13D filing yesterday (Sept. 23), a fair amount over Lifeway’s average stock price over the past three months of nearly $16. The $25-per-share offer would value the Morton Grove, Ill., (suburb of Chicago) company at about $318 million.
Danone North America already owns 23% of Lifeway, an investment it’s held for several years. Lifeway’s main product is kefir, a fermented yogurt-like drink.
Lifeway has reported record sales results for several quarters in a row and ended 2023 with record annual sales of $160 million, up 13%, and net income of nearly $11.4 million, up substantially from the $924,000 in 2022.
A buyout would apparently end family infighting that has pitted CEO Julie Smolyansky against her mother and brother, who together own a majority of the company. Ludmila and her son Edward Smolyansky have been fighting to remove Julie Smolyansky and replace the board of directors. The company was started by Julie’s father, Michael Smolyansky.
Further complicating matters, Edward Smolyansky last week announced he had an agreement to buy a shuttered Saputo dairy plant in Wisconsin with the goal of making kefir – possibly for a competing company he started, Pure Culture Organics, possibly for Lifeway if he is successful in removing his sister and the current board.
