By Isla Binnie and Milana Vinn
Dec 29 (Reuters) - Three cold storage companies have expressed interest in Americold COLD.K, which buys and manages temperature-controlled warehouses, with iSquared-backed CubeCold offering to pay a "significant premium" for its assets in Europe, Asia Pacific and South America, according to an email reviewed by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.
THE DETAILS
Cold storage and logistics firm CubeCold's Chief Executive Dave Moore wrote to Americold earlier this month to say he was interested in Americold's 43 facilities outside North America, said two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
In a December 17 email to Americold Chairman Mark Patterson, which was reviewed by Reuters, Moore said CubeCold could pay "at a significant premium to COLD's current trading levels."
Americold CEO Rob Chambers was copied on the exchange.
CubeCold is backed by U.S. infrastructure investment firm iSquared Capital, which manages more than $50 billion in assets.
THE OTHER BIDDERS
Constellation Cold, which is based in Britain and backed by private equity firm EQT, and Netherlands-based One Frio were the other potential bidders, one of the people said, asking not to be named because the discussions are confidential.
Constellation Cold expressed interest in Americold's European operations in late November, this person said.
One Frio also reached out about buying the European operations last week, they added.
THE BACKGROUND
The market value of Americold has fallen by more than 60% in the past five years with a current market value of about $3.6 billion.
Activist investor Ancora took a stake in Americold in recent months and the two entered a cooperation agreement on December 22, a regulatory filing showed.
Americold has around 1.4 billion refrigerated cubic feet of storage, in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America, according to its website.
Americold, CubeCold, iSquared and EQT declined to comment. One Frio did not immediately return requests for comment outside of working hours. Reuters was not immediately able to contact Constellation Cold.
Americold is a real estate investment trust that provides cold storage and transportation for food and the pharmaceutical industries.
Semafor reported earlier that Constellation Cold and CubeCold were bidding on the assets.
iSquared is expanding its investments in cold storage globally and bought a controlling stake in Philippines-based Royale Cold Storage in June 2025.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie and Milana Vinn in New York. Editing by Dawn Kopecki and Lincoln Feast)
((isla.binnie@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: isla.binnie.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))