Nomad Foods Limited has entered into an agreement to acquire Fortenova Group’s Frozen Food Business Group (FFBG) for aggregate consideration of approximately €615 million on a debt-free, cash free basis.
Nomad Foods is Europe’s leading frozen foods company (with brands such as Birds Eye, Findus, iglo, Aunt Bessie’s, Goodfella’s) whereas FFBG is a leading European frozen food portfolio operating in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Hungary, Slovenia, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Its two anchor brands, Ledo and Frikom, are the market leaders in these counties, operating across numerous categories including fish, fruits, vegetables, ready meal, pastry and ice cream.
Five SEE Legal member firms advised on this cross-border transaction besides Norton Rose Fulbright as the lead international counsel. BDK Advokati (Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Divjak, Topić, Bahtijarević & Krka Law Firm (Croatia) performed legal due diligence of the operating companies of the target business and advised on regulatory approvals, while ŠELIH & PARTNERJI Law Firm (Slovenia), KALO & ASSOCIATES (Kosovo) and Polenak Law Firm (North Macedonia) advised on the aspect of the transaction pertaining to their respective jurisdictions. Lakatos, Köves and Partners advised on the Hungarian aspects.
BDK team was led by senior partner Vladimir Dašić and associate Jelena Zelenbaba from the M&A team. Special contribution to the project was provided by our colleagues from real estate (Djordje Zejak and Tijana Martinović), IP (Bogdan Ivanišević and Anja Gligorević), employment (Luka Radojević), antitrust (Bisera Andrijašević and Mladen Vujić), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dijana Pejić Šinik) and Montenegro (Luka Popović and Jelena Brajković).
Photo by Devin Rajaram on Unsplash
