CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre has advised Compagnie Fruitière in its operation to increase minority capital subscribed by Unigrains and Crédit Agricole (IDIA Capital Investissement and Sofipaca) as lead investors, accompanied by Société Générale Capital Partenaires as a co-investor.
After the departure of its American shareholder, the Dole Food Company, in May 2014, this capital raising operation will enable the Compagnie Fruitière Group to pursue its proactive and ambitious growth strategy.
For this operation, the Compagnie Fruitière Group was advised by the CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre law firm, more specifically by Christophe Blondeau (partner), Alexandre Morel and Edouard Theret from the corporate department, Pierre Marly (partner) from the Africa department, Luc Jaillais, Laurent Hepp (partners) and Jean-Charles Benois from the tax department, Denis Redon (partner) and Virginie Coursière-Pluntz from the competition law department.
The investors were given legal advice by the Paul Hastings firm with Guillaume Kellner (partner), Mounir Ait Belkacem and Claudia Wagner and by the Grant Thornton firm for financial and tax due diligence matters with Thierry Dartus, Damien Moron and Alexis Martin.
About the Compagnie Fruitière Group:
Compagnie Fruitière is a family business created in 1939 which is majority-owned by the founding family. It is based in Marseille, achieves a turnover of more than EUR 700M and employs 18,000 people. The Group controls the entire fruit chain, from production to distribution, as well as transport, importation and ripening:
- Producer in Africa with over 9000 ha of plantations in the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal
- Logistics operator with specialized terminals in Africa/Europe and a fleet of eight specialist ships, making it the leader in the transport of fruit and vegetables from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) zone
- Distributor of fruit in Europe and ripening of bananas in France, the UK, Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
The Group is the leading producer of bananas and pineapples in the ACP zone with a total production of 450,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables. It is one of the European leaders in the distribution of fruit and vegetables (bananas, pineapples, mangos, avocados, lychees, citrus fruits, potatoes, etc.).
Compagnie Fruitière is strongly committed through its CSR policy: it builds and maintains hospitals, schools, nursery schools and accommodation for its personnel in its plantations in Africa.
For more information, please contact:
- Nicolas Merigeau, NewCap
nmerigeau@newcap.fr
+33 1 44 71 94 98 - CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre
Florence Jouffroy, Marketing and Communication Director
Laetitia Mostowski, Communication Manager
florence.jouffroy@cms-bfl.com, laetitia.mostowski@cms-bfl.com
+33 1 47 38 40 32 / 40 74
