Keurig Green Mountain Inc., based in Waterbury, Vermont said Monday that will pay about $624 million to buy back its shares owned Italian coffee company Lavazza which has been reducing its stake to get deals with others companies. Keurig sells single serve coffee machine and it is the maker of the K-Cup single served coffee pod. The US company said it will buy 5,23 million shares from Lavazza for $119.18 per share, a 3 per cent discount from Keurig’s closing price of $122.87 on Friday. The deal is expected to close on March 3. At that time, Lavazza’a stake in Keurig will drop to 3 per cent from 6.1 per cent.
Lavazza, the world’s seventh-largest coffee maker, owned 7.8 per cent stake in Keurig as of January 26 but has been steadily reducing its stake. It sold about 2 million shares between Jan.3 and Feb.3, and about 380.000 shares on Jan. 23 to fund acquisitions according to fillings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lavazza has bid more than 600 million euros (708 million USD) for l’Or and Grand Mere, two coffee brands put up for sale to ease a merger of US-based Mondelez International Inc’s coffee business with Dutch rival D.E. Master Blenders 1753.