By Abigail Summerville
(Reuters) -Private equity firm Apollo Global Management is looking to sell its Hispanic grocery chain Heritage Grocers Group, which could fetch roughly $1.5 billion, as fear of immigration raids weakens consumer demand in Latino communities across the U.S., according to two people familiar with the matter.
The firm is working with investment bank UBS on the sale process, they said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.
The grocery chain generates around $150 million of
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and over $2 billion of revenue, they said.
Apollo and UBS declined to comment. Heritage Grocers did not respond to a request for comment.
Heritage owns El Rancho Supermercado, Cardenas Markets and Tony's Fresh Market. In 2022, Apollo acquired Tony’s from its founding family and Cardenas from private equity firm KKR and combined the two. It then bought El Rancho in 2023. The company has around 115 stores in Illinois, Texas, Kansas, California, Nevada, and Arizona.
The grocery chain’s performance has suffered this year from weak consumer spending. Ratings agencies downgraded its credit this spring due to persistently soft consumer spending trends, exacerbated by tariff uncertainty. Mass deportations in the Hispanic community and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have also caused Heritage's core Hispanic shoppers to be more careful about when, where and how they shop.
Apollo has a long track record in grocery, with present and past investments including The Fresh Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Smart & Final, and Albertsons.
(Reporting by Abigail Summerville in New York; edited by Dawn Kopecki and Nick Zieminski)
