Greenyard Foods, as from the 1 September the new name of Pinguin, has finalised successfully the acquisition of the shares of four real estate companies of UFM and Globus. After this transaction, Greenyard Foods owns all of the shares of the companies D’Aucy Polska in Poland and Bajaj Hutoipari in Hungary and owns 56% of the shares of the companies Vallée de la Lys SAS and Moréac Surgelés SAS in France (UFM retains 34% of its shareholding). A total of € 21.5m has been paid for the shares, which corresponds with the revaluated equity of the target companies as of 31 March 2013.
Greenyard Foods also announces that it has acquired the shares of Scana Noliko Real Estate from Food Invest Int. (owned by Hein Deprez, who recently bought out Univeg from CVC). The Deprez family founded Univeg, the second-largest fruit and vegetable concern in the world after Dole. Scana Noliko Real Estate is a real estate company which is owner of the Noliko production sites in Bree and Rijkevorsel. An amount of € 40m has been paid for the shares.
Pinguin earlier already announces the succesfull completion of the leased production site in Boston (UK) from GW Padley Vegetables Limited. The purchase price, consisting mainly of the land and buildings, amounted to GBP 4.6m (€ 5.3m).
Conclusion:
Greenyard Foods began a fundamental metamorphosis from the moment that the Deprez family entered the capital and board in 2005. In 2005, Pinguin’s offer was expanded to include the fries and potato specialities of Lutosa. In 4Q10, PinguinLutosa and Cecab finalised a € 10m capital increase (at € 11.67 per share) to fund a merger of their frozen-vegetable units. On 30 June 2011, PinguinLutosa took over Scana Noliko for an EV of € 155m. In September 2012, PinguinLutosa reached a principle agreement on the proposed sale of the Lutosa division. For an EV of € 225m.
With these transactions Greenyard Foods continued its strategy to acquire its production facilities where possible and desirable. This allows Greenyard Foods to optimise the investments per production unit and the whole of its production facilities and to accelerate its efficiency improvements. Recall that on 18 July 2013 the EGM approved the capital reduction of € 2.4 per share. The payment will be made in accordance with the legal provisions, 2 months after the publication of the decision.
We reiterate that -through the recent collected of the € 150m bond operation,- Greenyard Foods envisages next to these purchases of real estate, the net proceeds will also be used for capital expenditure (among others optimisation investments), working capital financing and general corporate purposes, among which, further organic growth and growth through acquisitions. BUY rating and € 16 (63,31 USD, 0,25%) Price reiterated.