TreeHouse Shareholders Approve Acquisition by European Investment Fund
In a special meeting on Jan. 29, TreeHouse Foods shareholders overwhelmingly approved its merger with (really acquisition by) Industrial F&B Investments III Inc. While the TreeHouse name will continue, it will cease to be a separate and publicly held company.
43.6 million votes were cast in favor of the merger and 82,000 voted against it. A proposal for merger-related executive compensation was a lot closer – 27 million to 16 million – but it too passed.
As revealed last Nov. 10, Industrial F&B Investments III Inc., a European investment fund and part of bigger Investindustrial, will pay TreeHouse shareholders $22.50 per share in cash (the stock’s 52-week low was $15.85) and one non-transferable Contingent Value Right (CVR), making for a total value of $2.9 billion.
The CVR will provide each shareholder with an opportunity to receive proceeds, if any, from an ongoing lawsuit. Since 2014, TreeHouse Foods has been suing Keurig Green Mountain and now Keurig Dr. Pepper for monopolizing the single-serve coffee market. TreeHouse back then came up with a private label K-cup. TreeHouse’s own economic experts estimated a successful outcome could be worth $719-1.5 billion. The case is still pending.
The private label former powerhouse has spent seven years paring and refocusing itself. Its sales were $6.175 billion in 2017 but were just $3.354 billion in 2024, the last full year for which it reported results. Net income was a scant $27 million.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.