Hein Deprez completes Greenyard buyout

Belgian multinational fresh produce company Greenyard has been delisted from the Brussels Euronext stock exchange and returned to private ownership.

The buyout, which was led by the company’s founder Hein Deprez via a specially created company called Garden, was confirmed in a press release issued by Greenyard after the closure of what it described as a ‘simplified squeeze-out’ period.

In other words, with the deadline for any outstanding shareholders to take up Garden’s offer now passed, the transfer of all remaining shares to Garden – a legal requirement in Belgium once any stakeholder acquires 95 per cent of a company’s shares – must take place.

During its second attempt to secure agreement with other investors to part with their shares, Garden was able to buy just over 1.36mn additional shares in Greenyard, representing 2.64 per cent of the total outstanding volume it did not own.

This small percentage took the buyer above the 95 per cent threshold, when also factoring in so-called treasury stock held by Greenyard itself.

Prior to the current takeover bid, the Deprez family held around 42 per cent of shares in the company.

“All shares not tendered by the end of the acceptance period are deemed by operation of law to have been transferred to [Garden],” the press release explained.

Big deal

The buyout is a significant moment for Hein Deprez, who in 1987 founded Univeg, the company that was eventually transformed into Greenyard through a series of high-profile mergers and acquisitions.

After Univeg merged with Greenyard Foods and Peatinvest in 2015, shares in the newly combined entity were listed and traded from late June of that year.

Garden, an investment vehicle created specifically to cultivate the takeover, is jointly controlled by two companies, Food Invest International and Harvest.

The former is owned by Deprez Holding, while the latter is operated by Robusta, which in turn is controlled by Solum Partners.