Grupo SOS: sells Cuetara biscuit business to Nutrexpa

Madrid / ES. (sos) In July this year the Spanish Grupo SOS announced that it had reached an agreement with Unilever on the acquisition of Bertolli, the world leader in bottled olive oil. It also stated that one of the ways in which it would fund this acquisition would be by the sale of certain assets. In September the Group reported to the Spanish Securities Market Commission that it was inviting bids for its biscuit division, the leading biscuit brand in the Iberian market and which trades under the brand name Cuetara. This disposal process has now been completed. The successful bidder for the biscuit business is Grupo Nutrexpa.

The value of the transaction, structured as a sale of assets, is 215 million EUR, of which 197,7 million will be paid out by Nutrexpa while the remaining 17,3 million EUR, the working capital of the Cuetara business, will, with the exception of inventories, remain in the hands of Grupo SOS.

The transaction forms part of the Group´s declared strategy to focus its efforts on those of its businesses deemed suitable for international development, as is the case of vegetable oil and rice, global branded businesses in which Grupo SOS is the market leader with its brands SOS and Lassie, among others, in rice and Carbonell, Bertolli, Carapelli and Sasso in olive oil. In the olive oil market, the Group is the undisputed world leader with a share of 22 percent.

Nutrexpa is one of the leading food companies in Spain. The acquisition of Cuetara will allow Nutrexpa to enter the biscuit segment and position itself as the breakfast segment leader in the Iberian Peninsula.

Completion of the transaction is subject to the approval of the Spanish Open Market Commission (Comision Nacional de la Competencia). Ahorro Corporacion Financiera, S.V. S.A. and ABN AMRO Bank, Sucursal en Espana, authorised agent of Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, acted as exclusive financial advisers to Grupo SOS in this transaction.