JAB, making its second big U.S. acquisition in just over two months, has ambitions to build a global coffee powerhouse to rival market leader Nestle SA.
The company, which led the $13.9 billion buyout of K-cup maker Keurig Green Mountain in March, already owns the Caribou Coffee and Peet’s Coffee & Tea chains in the United States.
Luxembourg-based JAB took a big step forward in its coffee strategy last year when it formed a joint venture in Europe called Jacobs Douwe Egberts by combining its D.E. Master Blenders 1753 business with the coffee business of U.S.-based Mondelez International Inc.
The business is now the world’s largest pure-play coffee company by volume.
JAB, the investment vehicle of the billionaire Reimann family, said on Monday it would buy Krispy Kreme through JAB Beech Inc, in which U.S. private equity firm BDT Capital Partners is a minority investor.
Krispy Kreme, known for its glazed and jelly-filled doughnuts as well as coffee, had 1,121 stores worldwide as of January, of which 824 were outside the United States.
The company sells its ready-to-drink and bagged coffee and K-cup coffee pods for Keurig machines through retailers.
Krispy Kreme’s shares jumped 24.4 percent to $20.98 on Monday, just shy of the offer of $21 per share.
Cosmetics company Coty Inc and luxury goods maker Jimmy Choo are among the other companies controlled by JAB.
Krispy Kreme said it would continue to operate independently after the close of the deal, expected in the third quarter, and its headquarters would stay in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Wells Fargo Securities LLC is the U.S. company’s financial adviser, while Barclays and BDT & Co LLC are advising JAB Beech.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP are Krispy Kreme’s legal advisers. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is legal counsel to JAB Beech.
By Sruthi Ramakrishnan
Source: Reuters
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