Douwe Egberts rising

Mondelez and Dutch Firm Aim to Create a Coffee Powerhouse

Excerpt:

Mondelez International, the owner of Cadbury chocolate and Chips Ahoy cookies, is carving out its coffee business to combine it in a joint venture with a Dutch company to form a global coffee seller with more than $7 billion in annual revenue. The joint venture will join Mondelez International’s coffee portfolio with D.E Master Blenders 1753 of Amsterdam, giving the combined company control of coffee brands including Gevalia, Tassimo, Senso and, outside of the United States, Maxwell House. The new company will be called Jacobs Douwe Egberts and will be based in the Netherlands. After the combination, Mondelez International, which was spun out of Kraft Foods in 2012 and is based in Deerfield, Ill., will receive about $5 billion in cash and a 49 percent equity stake in the joint venture. “Jacobs Douwe Egberts will leverage the rich histories of both companies, combining our complementary geographic footprints, portfolios of iconic brands and innovative technologies to offer more people around the world more access to high-quality coffee and allowing the company to capitalize on the significant growth opportunities in a highly attractive market,” Pierre Laubies, the D.E Master Blenders chief executive and prospective C.E.O. of the combined company, said in a statement.

More: Coffee Merger to be financed with $10 billion of debt

Comments: A little history. Sara Lee spun off into two companies: Hillshire Branks (see previous post) and Douwe Egberts back in 2012.