The Deprez family has boosted its ownership of Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium-headquartered Greenyard from 45.3% to 49.3% following the purchase of Agri Investment Fund (AIF) shares on July 31. Taking into account other shares that Greenyard has recently acquired, the 50% control threshold has been exceeded by the Deprez family, through Deprez Holding NV and Food Invest International NV, as a result of this purchase.
AIF is no longer has a board of directors seat at Greenyard, which trades as GREEN on the Euronext Brussels Stock Exchange. This transaction doesn’t impact the free float, which remains stable at 38.1%.
Meanwhile, the company has reported that 14,000 shares were repurchased between July 24 and 28 in connection with its buyback program. Since the start of the program on March 15 of this year, Greenyard bought 1,692,500 shares valued at EUR 28,800,008. This corresponds to 3.81% of the total shares outstanding.
Greenyard stock closed unchanged at EUR 20.80 on July 31. Share value has increased by 40.92% year to date, and is up by 62.75% over the past 12 months.
Hein Deprez, executive chairman of the company, which is engaged in producing and marketing fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants, as well as providing logistics services and supplying growing media, issued the following statement:
“I would like to thank the Agri Investment Fund for their valuable support in Greenyard throughout their investment period. They entered into the capital of PinguinLutosa in 2011 via the capital increase which was triggered by the acquisition of Scana Noliko, currently our Prepared Division which is part of Long Fresh. During the era AIF was on board, they have been a trusted partner and shareholder. AIF’s strong support in growing our business from a small family company to its current global position is an excellent example of its role in our industry. The Deprez family is pleased it was able to take over AIF’s participation in Greenyard.”
With more than 9,000 employees working in 25 countries worldwide, Greenyard’s sales amount to almost EUR 4 billion a year. In June of 2015 its four constituent companies – UNIVEG, Pinguin, Noliko and Peltracom – were grouped under one unified banner.
