Board and shareholders back plan to delist company and sell it to founder’s new family business Garden
Belgian fresh produce company Greenyard will return to private ownership under its founder Hein Deprez and his family, assuming a plan to delist the company and buy out other shareholders goes ahead.
In a statement, the Deprez family said it had registered a new, wholly-owned holding company called Garden in Luxembourg, with financial support from investment management firm Solum Partners.
Garden will offer €7.40 per share to acquire just over 29.7mn shares that the family does not currently own, a move which values Greenyard at around €220mn and represents a 37 per cent premium on the share price on 1 April 2025.
The takeover, it said, would “support Greenyard to achieve its strategic priorities by enhancing the stability of its capital base through private, long-term capital”.
If successful, the acquisition will see Solum Partners part-fund the deal and, as a result, become a co-controlling shareholder of Garden.
Unanimous support
According to Garden’s statement, all major Greenyard shareholders – constituting 30.04 per cent of all its shares – have already “fully committed” to sell up.
Greenyard itself confirmed that, subject to customary conditions, its board of directors unanimously supported and recommended the offer.
“We, as the board of directors, believe that the offer is in the interest of both the company and its stakeholders,” said Greenyard chairman Koen Hoffman. “This belief is also based on the commitment of Greenyard’s major shareholders to tender their shares in the offer.”
The offer is subject to a number of conditions, including an acceptance threshold of 95 per cent, approval by the relevant authorities, and protection against various other adverse changes, Garden explained.
According to Greenyard’s latest financial report, in the nine months to 31 December 2024, its like-for-like net sales increased by 5.6 per cent year on year to €3.95bn.
In the same report, Greenyard confirmed its ambition to reach €5.4bn in sales and between €200mn–€210mn of adjusted Ebitda by March 2026. Its full-year net sales for 2023/24 were €5.07bn.
As of 30 September 2024, Greenyard reported net financial debt – excluding lease liabilities – of €280.7mn.
