Given the size of the deal and the personalities involved, Unigate's £27 million sterling acquisition of Unipork in Northern Ireland received strangely muted coverage, especially as Monaghan mushroom king, Ronnie Wilson, who owned 54 per cent of Unipork, received a handy £5.4 million for his stake in the company.

A move by Unigate for Unipork has been expected for some time, especially following the fire this year which closed Unigate's Ballymoney pig plant. This put fierce pressure on the British foods giant to find alternative pig processing capacity in the North and Unipork was the only real alternative.

Unipork's venture capitalists, particularly 3i, undoubtedly saw Unigate's predicament as a golden opportunity to get some return on what, by venture capital standards, has not been a wonderful investment.

Still, for a company like Unipork, which only made an operating profit last year because of profits on the sale of property, a price tag of £27 million - £10.6 million in cash to the Unipork shareholders and debt of £16.4 million - is seen in the industry as staggering.

Avonmore Waterford's results a few weeks ago showed clearly that it is currently impossible to make a profit out of pigmeat, and indeed it was red meat and lamb profits that balanced out pigmeat losses for AWG and allowed it to report a £500,000 profit in its meat division.

And while the situation might improve in the second half of the year, few believe any reasonable margin will be got out of pigmeat for some time. It was a good time for Ronnie Wilson to be a seller especially when there was a distressed buyer like Unigate waiting in the wings.