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What's Cooking Group completes sale of its Savoury business unit

What's Cooking Group NV (What's Cooking?), the leading European fresh food group with a wide product range in savoury cold cuts and ready meals, announced in October 2024 that it had agreed an intended sale to AURELIUS, a global alternative investor, of 100% of the share capital of What's Cooking Savoury Belgium NV and its subsidiaries in Belgium, the Netherlands, UK and Germany that produce and package savoury cold cuts (together the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) Savoury).

The relevant conditions, employee consultation and regulatory approvals have been fully completed and all approvals have been obtained, resulting in completion of the transaction on 10th of January 2025.

The Savoury SBU represented EUR 464m of the EUR 832m consolidated turnover of What's Cooking? for the 2023 financial year. The transaction results in a net equity value for What's Cooking? of approximately EUR 100 million after costs incurred.

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Piet Sanders, CEO of What's Cooking?: "At What's Cooking?, we want to accelerate the organic growth of our Ready Meals business, both for our own brands and private label products, by investing in further organic growth and through potential acquisitions. We are confident that the strong fundamentals of the SBU Savoury will allow it to continue to flourish under the ownership of AURELIUS. Their focus on operational value creation and their approach of combining bespoke advisory with proven methods to reduce complexity in carve-outs convinced us that we have chosen the right partner."

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Andrzej Cebrat, Managing Director at AURELIUS European Opportunities IV: “AURELIUS has been active in Belgium and the Netherlands since 2019 with a dedicated office in Amsterdam. The acquisition of What’s Cooking?’s renowned Savoury business complements our existing strategy and footprint in the region. With both international and local expertise, especially in smoothly handling carve-out situations, the AURELIUS Operations Advisory team will support Savoury management and the business on its new growth path.”

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