Young Henrys is expected to return to the negotiating table with an attempt to buy craft beer brewer Tribe that collapsed into voluntary administration last week.
In a sale process last year, Young Henrys was in exclusive due diligence to buy the business but lost control of the asset after moving to acquire the senior debt.
The business is backed by Ben Ingham of the wealthy Inghams poultry and racing empire and was founded by Oscar McMahon and Richard Adamson.
Young Henrys has craft beer brands and had been outsourcing its brewing to Tribe, a move that was eating into its profit margins.
Analysts believe a good move would be to bring its brewing operations in house, which could be achieved with a Tribe offer. They say consolidation is needed among craft brewers.
Tribe’s convertible note holders gained full ownership of the business after they bought out owners Advent Capital and the Szpitalak family and used legal channels to prevent a purchase by Young Henrys, also snapping up the senior debt from Young Henrys’ parent company.
The convertible note owners are understood to include the Smorgon family, Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron and Record Point.
Debt is understood to be less than $100m and some believe Tribe would be worth slightly more than $35m.
Tribe has 35 million litres of brewing capacity, and brewers are usually valued at $1 per litre, while some value would be offered by a handful of its brands.
Earlier it was thought that the company had been searching for a price of about $150m.
Working on the voluntary administration is FTI Consulting’s Chris Hill and Joseph Hansell.
Tribe started trading in 2018 and says it is home to the largest number of independent craft beers brewed in Australia.
It collapsed after the board determined that the financial structure and debts could not support the business at a time of challenging trading conditions.
The first creditors’ meeting will take place on March 9.
Tribe is chaired by former CUB boss John Murphy and its marketing director is Cameron MacFarlane.
Both Young Henrys and Brick Lane put in bids for Tribe when it was for sale last year, but they were not accepted.
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