Equity Highlights January 2026

Welcome to Broyhill's Equity Highlights, where we share a few quick takes on recent news across the portfolio every month.  

We aim to make these highlights easy to read and easy to repeat. This edition combines highlights from December 2025 and January 2026. Feel free to share our work! 

Middleby is progressing with strategic portfolio transactions. Middleby announced an agreement to sell a 51% stake in its Residential Kitchen business to affiliates of 26North, valuing the business at $885 million. Middleby said it expects roughly $540 million of upfront cash proceeds plus a $135 million seller note, and it will retain a 49% non-controlling interest in a new joint venture. The company said the deal is expected to close in Q1 2026, around the same time as Middleby’s planned Food Processing spin-off expected in 1H 2026.

Valvoline's Potential Brand Halo From Aramco’s Global Megaphone. Having acquired Valvoline's lubricants portfolio in 2023, Aramco's sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ stands to put the brand front and center for a global audience. Valvoline's quick lube business, while unrelated, still shares its name. It could see the benefit of this reported $100 million annual marketing effort, more than its own annual budget, without any outlay. To the extent the tournament increases consumer awareness of the Valvoline name in North America, Valvoline’s service business could see ancillary benefits.

Accenture and Thermo Fisher are the latest to ink partnerships with tech darlings. Accenture announced an expanded collaboration with OpenAI as a way to accelerate enterprise reinvention—pairing OpenAI capabilities with Accenture’s delivery model and rolling out ChatGPT Enterprise internally to support faster execution across client work. Thermo Fisher, meanwhile, announced a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA aimed at advancing its instrument and lab workflow ecosystem through greater automation and data-driven performance—positioning the effort to help laboratories improve throughput and productivity. Together, the announcements underscore how large, established operators are using partnerships with in-vogue tech leaders to potentially enhance product roadmaps and service delivery.

Ball is further consolidating the European packaging industry. Ball announced agreements to acquire an 80% stake in Benepack’s European beverage can manufacturing business, which includes two facilities in Belgium and Hungary, for an estimated purchase price of about €184 million. Existing Benepack shareholders will keep the remaining 20% stake. Required regulatory clearances have been received, and closing is expected in Q1 2026.

Disclosures

Any statements above reflect the views of Broyhill Asset Management, LLC as of the posting date and are subject to change. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and reflects publicly available news regarding certain companies that represent a subset of our total exposure to all of our portfolio companies at the time of posting. This information is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Holdings and views expressed may not be current and are subject to change without notice. Please review our full disclosures for additional important information and disclosures.