Recent trends in food, beverage and agribusiness M&A, and what's ahead for 2026

M&A momentum amid uncertainty for the food, beverage and agribusiness sector 9 min read

The food, beverage and agribusiness sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of shifting market conditions and uncertain global headwinds, with disclosed deal values more than doubling in 2025.

In this Insight, we explore the emerging M&A trends shaping the sector—including the continued dominance of private equity in high-value deals, and the growing focus on health and premiumisation—the implications of regulatory developments, and what's on the horizon.

Key takeaways

• While deal volumes dropped by 18% in 2025 compared with 2024, disclosed deal values more than doubled, from A$3.47 billion in 2024 to A$7.48 billion in 2025.¹
• Private equity continued a multi‑year trend of targeting quality defensive food, beverage and agribusiness assets with long-term growth exposure.
• Activity in the past year points to a market increasingly shaped by, among other things, shifts in consumer expectations and evolving sustainability standards, leading to a focus on premium-quality products, protein‑led platforms and health‑adjacent categories.
• Foreign investment and competition regulation remain critical to deal planning, with Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) scrutiny and merger control considerations continuing to influence transaction timing and execution risk.
• Regulatory readiness matters more than ever, with the sector facing heightened scrutiny across food standards and corporate compliance.

A resilient year for the food, beverage and agribusiness sector

While deal volumes in 2025 declined by 18% compared with 2024, the disclosed value of transactions doubled, rising from A$3.47 billion in 2024 to A$7.48 billion in 2025. This increase was driven by a smaller number of large-scale, strategic transactions, reflecting a market preference for quality, scale and long-term fundamentals, particularly in protein and consumer staples businesses with established brands and integrated supply chains.

Data source: Mergermarket

Investors increasingly explored assets at the beginning of the supply chain, targeting raw-material assets. This trend is evidenced by the two largest transactions in this sector in 2025, with Allens advising Lactalis on its A$3.48 billion acquisition of Fonterra's global consumer and associated businesses, and KKR on its A$1.3 billion acquisition of poultry infrastructure business ProTen.

Data source: Mergermarket

The Food subsector accounted for the most disclosed transactions in 2025 (with 46), followed by Agribusiness (with 28) and Beverage (with 12).

This dominance was also reflected in disclosed deal value, with Food accounting for A$5.11 billion, significantly exceeding Agribusiness at A$2.54 billion and Beverage at A$0.01 billion. The concentration of both deal volume and value in the Food subsector highlights continued investor focus on scaled, consumer‑facing and mid‑market food platforms, while Agribusiness activity remained comparatively more modest in value terms, despite solid deal flow.

Continued appetite from private equity

Private equity interest in the sector remained strong in 2025, targeting defensive assets with exposure to long-term growth, particularly in the protein‑led, consumer staple and evolving 'better for you' segments.

The desire from investors for resilient food platforms was clear from a number of transactions, including KKR's acquisition of poultry infrastructure business ProTen, mentioned above, and Allegro Fund’s acquisition of pork processor BE Campbell.

The restaurants and pubs subsector also performed well, consistent with trends highlighted in our 2024 sector Insight. Among other deals, Allens advised PAG on the sale of a significant stake in hospitality group Australian Venue Co. (having previously advised KKR on the divestment of AVC to PAG in 2023), as well as the founders of quick-service restaurant business El Jannah on the sale of the business to General Atlantic. These transactions reflect continued confidence in high-quality consumer food and beverage businesses with stable cash flows, even in a challenging economic environment.

Focus on health and premiumisation

Growing consumer demand for health, wellness and premium products continued to shape M&A activity in 2025, with investors targeting assets positioned to capture higher‑margin profiles.

Interest increased across health-led subsectors, including functional nutrition and clean‑label formulations, reflecting demand for products offering targeted health benefits and greater ingredient transparency. Protein has also emerged as a core structural demand driver, underpinned by changing dietary preferences, and health and wellness positioning.

Consumer preferences also fuelled investment activity in the pet nutrition subsector, with several high-profile deals including Prime100’s acquisition by ColgatePalmolive, and Lyka Wellness’s equity raise,  reflecting the extension of premium, health-led consumer preferences into pet nutrition.

These trends mirror broader investment momentum across health services and technologies, and are expected to continue shaping sector activity into 2026.

What's coming down the M&A pipeline for the sector?

Looking ahead, M&A activity in the food, beverage and agribusiness sector is likely to remain underpinned by structural rather than cyclical drivers.

As highlighted in recent commentary from Allens' head of M&A and Capital Markets, Vijay Cugati, in the Australian Financial Review, heightened geopolitical uncertainty and increasing global capital selectivity have sharpened investor focus on Australia as a jurisdiction that can offer durability alongside sustained, credible growth.

Against this backdrop, continued investment is expected, with sponsors and institutional investors remaining interested in scaled and vertically integrated protein platforms that offer scope for strategic and operational value creation. Premium and health-led food segments are also expected to continue to attract capital, reflecting the relative pricing power and demand resilience these subsectors keep demonstrating amid broader market pressures.

In 2026, we also expect to see increasing focus from both sponsors and corporates on strategic acquisitions that deliver digital uplift across data, automation and customer engagement, as well as enhanced supply chain resilience, reflecting lessons learned from recent volatility in input costs, energy and logistics. In this environment, regulatory predictability and execution certainty are becoming increasingly important considerations in transaction planning.

Regulatory developments

Australia’s food, beverage and agribusiness sector continues to operate in a highly dynamic and regulated environment, which impacts the way companies need to position themselves in the event of a potential sale and plays an important part in how bidders are assessing potential targets. Below are some of the key regulatory developments that are playing a role in M&A decision-making in this sector.

FIRB considerations for agribusiness and agricultural land

FIRB settings in the agriculture sector remain tight, reflecting national‑interest and biosecurity concerns, and the treatment of certain supply-chain assets as critical infrastructure. Both foreign parties and domestic players in this space should be aware of applicable FIRB approval thresholds. In particular:

• Agribusiness: An entity is an agribusiness where more than 25% of its earnings before interest or taxes or asset value relates to prescribed agricultural activities. Foreign persons acquiring a direct interest (generally 10%) for A$75 million or more (inclusive of any existing holdings) will be required to obtain FIRB approval. Higher thresholds apply to investors from the US, Chile and New Zealand (A$1,498 million).
• Agricultural land: FIRB approval will be required where the total value of the foreign acquirer's agricultural land interests (existing and proposed) exceeds A$15 million. Higher thresholds also apply here for the US, Chile and New Zealand (A$1,498 million) and Thailand (A$50 million, and land must be used for primary production).

For parties in the agriculture subsector, building FIRB timing into deal planning and early engagement will be vital to ensure a smooth foreign investment approval process and minimise review delays. For more information, please refer to our guide on Doing business and investing in Australia.

Competition developments for the sector

Australia's new mandatory and suspensory merger regime came into full effect on 1 January 2026, following a six-month transition period. Under the regime, acquisitions of shares or assets (including legal or equitable interests) must be notified to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) where certain control and monetary thresholds are met, the target ‘carries on business’ in Australia and no exemption applies. Those acquisitions must not be put into effect until the ACCC has given clearance.

The new regime is expected to significantly increase the volume of transactions notified to the regulator, and the level of information and documents required to be produced to it in support of filings—and a number of acquisitions in the food, beverage and agricultural sectors have already been notified to the ACCC under the new regime.

The notification criteria include revenue thresholds that are designed to address 'creeping' or serial acquisitions, which can be satisfied by aggregating the revenue of the proposed target with the revenue of previous targets acquired by the acquirer and its 'connected entities' over the past three years in the same industry (subject to certain exceptions). Further, in assessing whether an acquisition is likely to substantially lessen competition, the ACCC can look at the cumulative effect of similar acquisitions by the merging parties in the previous three calendar years. In that context, the regulator has flagged that it will consider evidence regarding the parties' pattern of acquisitions and any overall strategic approach to serial acquisitions.

More broadly, the ACCC's enforcement priorities for 2026–27 confirm that it will continue to scrutinise the retail and supermarket sectors, including in relation to pricing claims and conduct that impacts small business.

For more information, please refer to our Insight on the new merger regime, and our Insight on the ACCC's enforcement priorities.

ASIC's focus on compliance

In 2025, we saw ASIC launch a compliance blitz targeting privately held corporate groups that were alleged to have failed to lodge financial reports on time. Several high-profile entities were issued infringement notices, including several food and beverage companies with substantial brand recognition. The sector proved to be particularly vulnerable to the regulator's surveillance, which put the spotlight on companies with significant revenue, assets or large numbers of employees. ASIC has said it remains focused, going forwards, on driving improved compliance by companies and other entities with financial reporting obligations—and it does so at a time when those obligations continue to expand, with the first batch of sustainability reports due to be published in 2026.

The message for boards and for shareholders considering their next move is to make sure your house is in order, and you are getting the basics right. Not doing so creates opportunity costs in needing to respond or in distracting from opportunities on the horizon, including by raising any due diligence concerns for a bidder during an M&A transaction.

Biosecurity impacts

Biosecurity is also emerging as a deal‑critical consideration in the sector. As outlined in our recent Insight: Biosecurity in the spotlight, growing regulatory and stakeholder expectations are increasing the importance of proactive biosecurity risk management, with implications for valuation, diligence, contractual protections and supply‑chain resilience in food, beverage and agribusiness transactions.

Food standards and regulations—what's coming in 2026

The Federal Government is considering making the current voluntary Health Star Rating System (the HSR) (which can presently optionally be applied to consumer food and beverage product packaging in Australia) into a mandatory system. This follows more than ten years of the voluntary scheme, which has seen inconsistent levels of uptake, varying greatly between different food categories. If the HSR system is made mandatory, this would be the largest reform to it since its inception, and may have a material effect on valuation of impacted food and beverage companies.

In addition, regulatory reforms may be ahead for caffeine products and formulated supplementary sports foods this year, with the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) board decisions on variation proposals to the Food Standards Code expected in April 2026. The reforms, if the board approves them, would put the spotlight on sports and caffeinated foods and beverages. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has also included the advertising of listed medicines as one of its enforcement priorities, which again puts dietary, vitamin and sports supplements within the regulator's enforcement radar.

For further information regarding legal and regulatory developments in the food and beverage sector, please refer to our Food & Beverage Bulletin 2025, or contact any of the people below.