Drinks firm Royal Unibrew has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Vrumona from Heineken.
Vrumona is the second largest soft drinks player in the Dutch market, and carries a wide range of own brands and partner brands.
Agreement
At completion, Royal Unibrew will acquire 100% of Vrumona for a consideration of €300 million on a debt free basis.
Vrumona’s net revenue was €200 million in 2022, while normalised EBITDA in 2022 was €25 million, resulting in an acquisition multiple of (EV/EBITDA) of 12 times.
The acquisition of Vrumona is expected to be EPS accretive already in 2024, and ROIC on the acquisition is expected to exceed WACC within three years.
Soft Drinks Market
Vrumona is the second largest player in the Dutch soft drinks market with its range of brands including Royal Club, Sisi, Sourcy, Sourcy Vitamin Water and partner brands including 7 Up, Pepsi and Rivella.
The majority of the group's product portfolio is in the no/low sugar and calories segment. The company and production site is located near Utrecht and has more than 300 employees.
PepsiCo Partnership
With the acquisition of Vrumona, Royal Unibrow said it will also expand its longstanding partnership with PepsiCo, as Vrumona operates the full beverage portfolio from PepsiCo as part of a license agreement, in a partnership dating back to 1949.
Vrumona operates seven production lines at its Utrecht facility with a current annual output of around 3.1 million hectolitres. The acquisition of Vrumona establishes a new market platform for Royal Unibrew in the Netherlands, it said.
Royal Unibrew said that it plans to invest in further production capabilities to grow the existing business, but also use spare capacity to support Royal Unibrew's global production footprint.
'New Growth Platform'
"Vrumona is a leading soft drinks manufacturer, and it comes with a strong local organisation, which makes it a strategic very strong fit for Royal Unibrew," said Lars Jensen, CEO of Royal Unibrew.
"Vrumona will become a new growth platform for Royal Unibrew in continental Europe and is expected to drive organic earnings growth in the coming years.”
Terms Of Agreement
The transaction is dependent on one regulatory approval in a small Royal Unibrew export market as well as a customary works council process on the seller’s side of the transaction.
The transaction is expected to close in either September or October this year, and will be financed by committed extended financing facilities with existing banks.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest drinks news. Article by Robert McHugh. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
