Source: United Coffee in Geneva
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – UCC, the leader of Japan’s coffee market, is buying one of Europe’s largest independent coffee suppliers, United Coffee of Geneva. The price of the sale is 50 billion yen ($617 million), reports Bloomberg, which says the move “enables UCC to enter Europe for the first time and will bring the company’s sales from overseas markets to about 20 percent from 3 percent.”
The sale is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2012, says UCC in a mailed press release.The sale is being handled through the CapVest private equity fund.
The new company will be the fifth largest in the world. UCC is a family company, remaining in the hands of the founding family, with 3,700 employees and turnover of euros 2.6 billion. It recently decided to re-centre its activities on the coffee industry to become a world-scale player. It was the first Japanese company to adopt integrated production, from plantation to finished product. It has coffee plantations in Hawaii and Jamaica and is one of the largest suppliers to consumers and the restaurant industry.
United Coffee was founded in 1818 and it describes itself as “one of Europe’s largest coffee roasters, producing and distributing a wide range of coffee, coffee machines and related services through retail and out-of-home distribution channels, which includes hotels, restaurants and cafés.”
United Coffee moved to Geneva in July 2010. It is one of the companies that has taken up the war against food giant Nestle, which is protecting its coffee capsule business with a fleet of patents, backed by lawsuits.
Background: “Unlocking a Captive Market: The Battle to Unseat the Nespresso“, Wharton University, June 2011
Nestle in Chinese sweets deal, Lonza goes for American biochem
Update 15:25 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Vevey-based Nestlé has entered into an agreement with the founding family of Hsu Fu Chi, one of China’s main snack and sweets manufacturers, with four large plants and 16,000 employees. In the deal worth CHF1.4 billion, the Swiss company will ultimately control 40 percent of the company, which is listed in Singapore.
The deal will need government approval.
Nestlé intends to acquire 60 percent of Hsu Fu Chi while the Hsu family will own the remaining 40 percent, the Vevey multinational said in a press release Monday 11 July. Hsu Fu Chi’s chairman and chief executive officer, Hsu Chen, will continue to lead the company in the new partnership.
The Swiss company says of the deal that Hsu Fu Chi has a large range of “affordable products”, with a portfolio that “includes sugar confectionery, cereal-based snacks, packaged cakes and the traditional Chinese snack sachima. Hsu Fu Chi’s products are tailored to Chinese consumers’ needs and habits, and complement Nestlé’s existing product portfolio in China, which includes culinary products, soluble coffee, bottled water, milk powder and products for the foodservice industry.”
Bloomberg points out that the Chinese company’s growth rate in 2010 was three times that of Nestle’s worldwide, noting that “Nestle’s Bulcke, 56, has set a goal of getting 45 percent of revenue from developing countries by 2020, compared with about a third now.”
Basel company takeover of US firm to create world’s largest microbial control firm
Basel-based Lonza will become the world’s largest microbial control company in terms of sales, which are estimated at CHF1.6 billion, once its agreement to buy Arch Chemicals, a Connecticut-based US company, goes through. The deal to take over Arch’s outstanding shares of common stock at a price of $47.20 per share in cash will give Arch Chemicals an enterprise value of $1.4 billion (approximately CHF 1.25 billion), the two companies said in a statement released Monday 11 July.
Lonza Group Ltd is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Arch Chemicals, Inc. is a global biocides company that provides “innovative solutions to destroy or to selectively inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms”.
Microbial control is the process of inhibiting or preventing the growth of microorganisms, generally by using agents that either kill them or inhibit their growth. Agents that kill or called “cidals” and those that inhibit are “static agents”.
“Currency factors will help Lonza in the case of Arch,” reports the Financial Times. “The group will borrow to finance the deal, benefiting both from ultra low US interest rates and the strength of the franc.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The news is official: Skype of Luxembourg will wed Microsoft of Washington State in the US, with the American company paying a hefty wad of cash for its new partner. Skype 10 May joined Microsoft in stating that “Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Skype Global S.à.r.l. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Skype.”
The news caught the financial and technical worlds by surprise, and not even WikiLeaks appears to have had a lead in knowing about it.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Seattle Intelligencer, Wired
Baboo to continue operating until 2011 consolidation; 52 employees reportedly laid off
The Baboo brand will be retained for some products, says new owner Darwin
Geneva and Lugano, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Darwin, Swiss regional airline based in Ticino, is buying out Baboo, in a bid to strengthen its position. It expects to double its balance sheet from CHF40 to 80 million, with more than half a million passengers a year. The company will continue to fly Baboo’s network and will retain the name Baboo for some of its products. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will be completed in early 2011.
The enlarged Darwin airline will have more than 20 destinations, mainly in Switzerland, Italy and France, and to some extent other European countries.
US-based computer systems company HP has agreed to pay $1.2 to buy out Palm, maker of smartphones and the webOS mobile operating system. The buyout is designed to give HP a stronger position in the rapidly growing mobile market, particularly in China, where the company opened a major new plant in Chongqing in January 2010.
Cadbury, the independent British chocolate maker, will take on an American flavour, news that sent its shares up by 3 percent Tuesday morning 19 January. The company announced that it has accepted US multinational Kraft’s takeover bid, which has been opposed by British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson. The final details, including the price paid, will be released shortly, the companies said in a joint announcement. The Financial Times reports that the deal could be worth £11.7bn ($19bn). Mandelson has voiced concerns that the US company wanted to make a “fast buck” from Cadbury’s, and unions have expressed fear that jobs will be lost. Cadbury employs 45,000 people worldwide, including staff at a Swiss site in Rolle, canton Vaud.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Times, UK
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The ongoing guessing game about who will own Cadbury is expected to end Wednesday 6 January when Kraft unveils shareholder response to its hostile takeover bid for Cadbury, but Nestlé won’t be one of the owners. The Swiss-based Nestlé says it is not bidding on Cadbury, ending speculation that it would fight Kraft for the UK-based Cadbury sweets company. Nestlé has instead offered to buy Kraft’s pizza division, the leader in the US and Canada in the frozen pizza market.
Nestlé’s $3.7 billion offer for the pizza business is allowing Kraft to increase its cash offer for Cadbury.
The pizza deal covers a number of brands, including DiGiorno, Tombstone, California Pizza Kitchen, Jack’s and Delissio.
Ghana: local chief holds out cocoa used in Cadbury chocolate (photo: Cadbury)
Geneva/Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US-based Kraft Foods went public with an offer for Cadbury, UK confectioner, after the British company refused its proposal. Kraft is offering £10.2 billion for Cadbury, which formally turned down the proposal Monday 7 September, noting in a statement that “the board is confident in Cadbury’s standalone strategy and growth prospects as a result of its strong brands, unique category and geographic scope and the continued successful delivery of its ‘Vision into Action’ plan. The board believes that the proposal fundamentally undervalues the group and its prospects.” Shares in the company rose strongly Monday.
