Global ice cream giant Froneri – the joint venture owned by Nestle and what was R &R Ice Cream – is set to conquer a new territory.

Nearly five years after PAI Partners' R&R bought Australia’s Peters Ice Cream, and three years after R &R tipped Peters into the bigger Froneri portfolio, the company is in late stage talks to buy Fonterra’s Tip Top ice cream business in New Zealand.

As Street Talk revealed on Sunday, Fonterra has tapped Froneri for exclusive talks after a comprehensive two-stage auction run by Kiwi investment bank First NZ Capital.

Fonterra is working towards a signed deal to divest its iconic Tip Top ice cream unit. AFR

The parties are understood to be in talks to finalise a deal worth about $NZ375 million ($355 million), which is not far off what R &R paid for Peters back in 2014.

And interestingly it is understood R &R’s interest in Tip Top stretches all the way back to the Peters deal, when management at the time identified it as a logical and affordable bolt-on that could stretch its global network even further.