Apetit Oyj — M&A Activity 2022

Mar 23, 2022

Apetit has agreed to sell its Grain Trade business

Apetit has agreed to sell its Grain Trade business

Apetit Plc, inside information, on 23 March 2022 at 03:00 p.m.

Apetit has agreed to sell its Grain Trade business

Apetit Plc has agreed to sell its Grain Trade business to Berner Ltd. Berner Ltd
is a Finnish family company with a strong position in the Finnish agricultural
trade. In 2018, Apetit Group’s subsidiary Avena Nordic Grain Oy and Berner Oy
started close cooperation as Farmer’s Avena Berner. The operating model was
based on a partnership and a common field organisation for production input and
grain trade.

The transaction will be carried out as a business transfer including Avena’s
Finnish grain trade business as well as its grain stocks and port operations in
Finland. Avena’s grain trade employees will be transferred to Berner as existing
employees.

The agreed acquisition price is about EUR 4 million added by the value of the
transferring inventory. The acquisition price is paid in cash at the time of the
sale. The sale is expected to take place during the second quarter. The sale
requires approval by the competition authority. Apetit will make a non-recurring
gain of about EUR 2 million after tax on the sale. This gain will be allocated
to the second quarter. The transaction’s final effect on the result will become
clearer once it has been completed.

In 2021, the net sales of Apetit’s entire Grain Trade business were EUR 164.5
million, of which the share of Finnish operations was EUR 73 million. The Grain
Trade business had 51 employees in 2021.

Apetit will report the entire Grain Trade business as a discontinued operation
starting from the Q1/2022 business review.

In December, Apetit’s subsidiary Avena Nordic Grain agreed to sell the Baltic
operations of its Grain Trade business to Scandagra Group. The conditions of the
sale concerning the Estonian company have been fulfilled and the sale was
completed on 10 March 2022. The sale of the Lithuanian company’s business is
waiting for the approval of the local competition authority. The transaction is
expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2022.

The transactions are expected to have a positive effect on Apetit Group’s annual
operating profit.

Apetit Plc’s CEO Esa Mäki:

“Apetit’s strategic goal has been to develop its trade capabilities in the grain
trade. As a result of changes in the operating environment and the market
situation, reaching the goal has been challenging, which has unfortunately had a
negative effect on the performance of the Grain Trade business. I believe that
Berner is in a good position with synergies to continue developing the business.
Once completed, the divestment of the Grain Trade business will improve Apetit’s
profitability and allow us to focus on growing and developing our processing
businesses, meaning the Food Solutions and Oilseed Products businesses.”

Berner Ltd’s CEO Antti Korpiniemi:

“Acquiring Apetit’s Grain Trade business gives us the opportunity to grow our
agricultural trade value chain in Finland. We believe that this transaction,
together with our existing expertise, creates significant added value for the
development of our entire production input and grain trade business as well as
for increasing our competitiveness.”
Apetit Plc
For further information, please contact:

Esa Mäki, CEO, Apetit Plc, tel. +358 (0)10 402 2100

Antti Korpiniemi, CEO, Berner Ltd, tel. +358 20 791 4200
Apetit is a food industry company firmly rooted in Finnish primary production.
Our operations are based on a unique and sustainable value chain: we create well
-being with vegetables by offering tasty food solutions that make daily life
easier. We also produce high-quality vegetable oils and rapeseed expellers for
feedstuff, and trade grain on the international markets. Apetit Plc’s shares are
listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. The Group’s net sales in 2021 were EUR 284 million.
Read more: apetit.fi/en