Jacobs Douwe Egberts bids RM1.47b for Malaysia's OldTown coffee

[LONDON] Jacobs Douwe Egberts has offered to buy Malaysian coffee company OldTown Berhad for RM1.47 billion (S$487.73 million) as the private company looks to further expand its global coffee empire.

JDE has offered RM3.18 per share for the operator of the OldTown White Coffee chain, which has 232 outlets, mostly in Malaysia, the companies said on Monday.

Owners of 51.45 per cent of OldTown's shares have agreed to tender them in acceptance of the offer, which represents a premium of 10.42 per cent to their last trading price on Thursday, they said.

OldTown's shares were suspended on Friday pending the announcement.

JDE, with brands including Jacobs, Tassimo, Douwe Egberts and Kenco, is part of JAB Holding, which has built up a global coffee business through a string of deals over the past few years. This would be its second deal in Asia this year, following its acquisition of Singapore-based Super Group.

OldTown was advised by Evercore.

REUTERS