Richmond Foods, the ice cream manufacturer with 850 staff, is to be acquired by private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management for £182m. If shareholders approve the deal they will get 750 pence for each Richmond share, about 24% higher than the closing price on Thursday. Richmond's chairman Ross Warburton said the offer represented good value for the business and its prospects. Analysts said that the takeover of Richmond was not a huge surprise after the company lost out to Oaktree in its efforts to buy German ice cream-maker Roncadin. They are now predicting further takeovers and mergers in the industry. "Our goal is for Richmond to remain focused on its core geographical market but, once combined with Roncadin, to leverage both companies' strong market positions and reputation for high-quality products to enable us to serve customers on a pan-European basis," commented Caleb Kramer, managing director of Oaktree. "We are committed to helping management establish the combined company as the distinct market leader in terms of innovation and customer service," he continued. [Datamonitor News and Comment.]