Uddhav Bhargava Talks to Agri Investor About Allegro’s Investment in BE Campbell
News
6.1.2026
By Tom Taylor, Agri Investor, published Mon 5 Jan, Agri Investor
Private equity fund manager Allegro Funds is targeting up to A$900 million ($600 million; €510 million) for its fifth fund as it branches further into food and agriculture with the acquisition of a meat producer.
Allegro Fund V launched in November and aims to hit a first close during the first quarter of 2026, followed by a final close between A$800 million and A$900 million by the end of the year.
Fund V is targeting a gross money multiple of 2.5–3.5x.
Through its 2021-vintage fourth fund, Allegro recently made an investment of undisclosed value to acquire a 55 percent stake in meat producer BE Campbell.
Allegro Funds associate director Uddhav Bhargava told Agri Investor that Allegro is “sector-agnostic” in the investments it makes.
Although Allegro has experience in the food sector through its acquisition of the Australian master franchise of Pizza Hut in 2016 and Everest Ice Cream in 2017, BE Campbell marks its first directly agricultural investment to date.
BE Campbell is primarily a pork producer and also supplies beef and lamb products to domestic supermarkets.
Allegro invests in Australian and New Zealand businesses through its turnaround, growth transformation, or partnership strategies, the latter of which BE Campbell fits into.
Bhargava said Allegro began its partnership strategy through Fund III with investments in hydraulic solutions provider Questas Group and diagnostic imaging service provider Perth Radiological Clinic.
“[They are] both quite different industries to each other – and different to BE Campbell – but similar in that they were private shareholding groups or individuals that we partnered with, and they remained significantly invested in the business,” Bhargava said.
“They’re different in the fact that they’re not broken businesses, or not businesses facing particular industry headwinds like you might find in our turnaround investments.”
Bhargava said in a typical Allegro fund pursuing eight to 10 deals, the firm aims to include up to three partnership-type deals.
BE Campbell’s founding family, which has run the business for more than 50 years, retains a significant minority stake in the company after Allegro’s investment.
“It’s a yin-yang connection that you get where they’re industry veterans, they’re always going to know the industry better than us, we know that they’ve successfully been able to grow the business through all the diligence, looking at the historical growth that they’ve had,” Bhargava said.
“Then on the other side of the coin, what we bring is a different, hands-on approach to transformation, and we come at it from more of a broader cross-sector approach.
“We have done this a number of times, come into businesses, new situations, looked at it with fresh eyes, been able to identify further opportunities for growth in partnership with the team – and then also, there is an element of being able to bring additional capital and M&A experience.”
Bhargava, who is a non-executive director on BE Campbell’s board, said he has already started exploring adjacent acquisitions to accelerate the firm’s growth.
Allegro’s Fund IV closed in May 2022 with A$750 million commitments, plus sidecars and co-investments taking the total up to about A$950 million.
As of November, the fund has made five investments, including the partnership with BE Campbell and a carve-out of business consultancy PwC Australia to form public advisory firm Scyne Advisory.
Bhargava said Fund IV is more than 75 percent deployed, with space for one or two more investments.
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