The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan agreed on Monday to buy Burton's Biscuit Co., one of Britain's top cookie and cracker makers with annual sales of $548 million.
The pension fund, which had $129.5 billion in assets at the end of last year and serves 303,000 active and retired teachers, purchased a majority stake in Burton's from the Canadian Imperial Bank and funds managed by Apollo Global Management. The sale price was not disclosed.
The pension said the company's current management team would be retained, including CEO Ben Clarke.
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"During this process we have met with over 30 different potential buyers and, as significant co-investors going forward, it was critical for the management team to find the right partner," Clarke said in a statement.
This is not the first British business the fund has invested in. In 2010, it bought Camelot Group, which operates the national lottery. In September it purchased the country's largest daycare provider, Busy Bees Nursery Group.
Burton's describes itself as the only major manufacturer in the U.K. to focus on biscuits. It owns three manufacturing plants and a chocolate refinery and employs 2,000 workers. The company's most well known biscuit brands are Maryland, Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels.
The pension system reported in April that it was 97 percent funded. Its investments returned 13 percent in 2012. Still, as of January, the gap in future unfunded liabilities stood at $5.1 billion.
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