Coffee and doughnut chain, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. agreed to be acquired by a JAB Holding Co. subsidiary, which owns Kenco and Douwe Egberts, in a £935m deal.
The deal is expected to close by September, when the 80-year-old Krispy Kreme will be privately held.
The investment firm, which manages the fortune of Austria’s billionaire Reimann family, has spent more than £20.7bn in the past four years acquiring coffee companies in the US and Europe to challenge global leader Nestle SA. This includes a deal In December last year which saw the group acquire coffee-pod maker Keurig Green Mountain for £9.6bn.
Krispy Kreme has more than 1,100 shops in more than 26 countries, including self-serve cabinets in about 500 Tesco stores and service stations in the UK.