Agrova International completes €40 million acquisition of UK egg producer Sunrise Group

Agrova International, the parent company of APF Holdings (Nasdaq Riga: EGG), led by its founder Jurijs Adamovičs, has acquired 100% of the shares in Sunrise Group – a UK-based egg production and distribution company comprising Sunrise Poultry Farms and Sunrise Eggs Holdings. With a total transaction value of €40 million, this acquisition ranks among the largest outbound acquisitions by a Latvian company in recent years.

As a result, Sunrise Group becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Agrova International, joining the group alongside Latvia-based APF Holdings - a major egg and egg product producer in the Baltics. This acquisition significantly expands Agrova’s operational footprint and strengthens its position as a pan-European player in the egg and egg protein industry. The acquisition was supported with funding from Accession Capital Partners, a growth capital provider with experience in backing agriculture businesses.

Sunrise Group is one of the UK’s most established egg producers, with more than 60 years of experience. Founded in the 1960s in the Soar Valley, Leicestershire, the company is now headquartered in Sileby. Its products are supplied to leading UK retail chains as well as to food manufacturers and the HoReCa sector nationwide.

Sunrise Group maintains the highest standards of quality, food safety, and animal welfare, with its operations certified under the British Lion, RSPCA Assured, and BRCGS schemes. The Group’s farms are located across Leicestershire and contracted producers throughout the UK, while its central grading and packing facility in Sileby (Leicestershire) processes more than four million eggs each week. Sunrise continues to invest in sustainable and efficiency-driven technologies, including advanced quality-control systems and robotic packing lines, and actively pursues initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint and optimise resource use. Sunrise Group recorded 38.5 million euros in revenue in the last financial year.

Jurijs Adamovičs, Founder of Agrova International and APF Holdings: “We are delighted to welcome the Sunrise team into the Agrova family – this partnership will further strengthen our position in the European market and drive the next phase of growth. Sunrise is a company with strong fundamentals, a production capacity comparable to our infrastructure in Latvia, and a well-established trading network across the UK. This transaction will more than double Agrova International’s scale and revenue, giving us access to one of Europe’s most advanced and dynamic food markets”.

Piotr Sadowski, Partner, Accession Capital Partners (ACP): “We are honoured to support Agrova International – both in this strategically important expansion in the United Kingdom and by providing growth financing to APF Holdings in Latvia. We believe in Agrova’s leadership vision and stand confidently alongside the team as they build a competitive and sustainable international agri-food group”. 

Advisors to the transaction

Agrova International was advised by Oaklins, acting as lead M&A advisor and overseeing the process from the initial contact with the sellers through to successful completion. EY Parthenon served as financial and capital-raising advisor, Higgs LLP provided legal counsel, and PKF Francis Clark conducted financial and tax due diligence.

Accession Capital Partners was advised by Eversheds Sutherland on legal matters and legal due diligence, and by Deloitte on financial, tax and ESG due diligence.

The sellers were advised by S&W Partners Corporate Finance, acting as lead financial advisor, supporting the process of approaching potential buyers and leading negotiations, and by Gateley PLC as legal counsel.

Reinholds R. Razums, Associate Partner, Oaklins: “We are proud to have been part of this important milestone in Agrova International’s development. The acquisition and integration of Sunrise Group represent a strategic and forward-looking step, creating one of the most dynamic and scalable egg and protein platforms in Europe. This transaction demonstrates that Baltic investors are ready to execute complex, cross-border M&A deals with ambition, capability, and confidence”.

Guntars Krols, Managing Partner, EY Baltics: “We are pleased to support Latvian entrepreneurs who are boldly expanding beyond their home markets. Agrova International’s acquisition of Sunrise Group – one of the UK’s leading egg producers – is a significant achievement that highlights the strategic vision and professional excellence of Baltic business leaders. It is a well-structured and precisely executed transaction, proving that Latvian companies can compete successfully on the European stage. We wish the Agrova team continued success as they grow and set new standards of quality and ambition within the region’s food industry”.

About Agrova International 

Agrova International is a a European poultry and agri-foods group headquartered in Riga, Latvia, which invests in poultry and food production companies. Besides Sunrise Eggs, it holds a majority stake in APF Holdings (Nasdaq Riga First North: EGG), a dynamic, vertically integrated agri-food group specialising in poultry farming, egg production, and trading, as well as biogas and organic fertiliser production. APF Holdings includes Alūksnes putnu ferma (poultry and egg production), APF Trading (egg wholesale), Oluksne (production services), APF Energy (biogas and organic fertiliser), and Preiļu putni (young bird rearing). Founded in 2017, APF Holdings has become one of the leading poultry sector players in the Baltic region, offering innovative and sustainable products that meet the highest food quality, safety, and animal welfare standards.

About Sunrise Eggs

Founded in the late 1960s by Tony and Sheila Crawley, Sunrise Eggs is an independent family business based in the Leicestershire countryside. The company produces and packs around four million eggs each week, supplying major supermarkets, local retailers, and food manufacturers nationwide. Sunrise specialises in shell-egg production, sourced from its own farms and trusted partners, and is widely recognised for quality, reliability, and responsible farming.

About Accession Capital Partners

Accession Capital Partners (ACP) is investing from its fifth fund AMC V SCA SICAV-RAIF which closed at €336m in June 2024.  ACP has been operating in Central and Eastern Europe since 2000 through its offices in Vienna, Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest and Prague and Luxembourg. To date, the group has raised commitments of more than €1.2bn in five dedicated growth capital funds. The funds are backed by reputable institutional investors, including the European Investment Fund, the International Finance Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a number of banks, family offices, funds of funds, pension funds and insurance companies from Europe, the US and Asia.