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JAB Investments to acquire UK sandwich chain Pret A Manger

European investment group JAB Investments on May 29 said it had agreed to acquire Pret A Manger Ltd, a U.K.-based caterer that offers ready-to-eat food from 530 shops worldwide.

JAB Investments, which owns Panera Bread Co. in the U.S., will buy Pret A Manger from Bridgepoint, the international private equity firm. Terms were not disclosed, although the Financial Times, citing people with knowledge of the transaction, reported the price tag was £1.5 billion including debt.

The deal is expected to be completed during the summer of 2018. The Netherlands-based JAB Investments has been buying companies in the coffee business to compete with Switzerland's Nestlé SA. The privately owned group announced in January 2018 a deal to acquire Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. for $18.7 billion in cash and merge it with its Keurig Green Mountain coffee business.

Nestle is also expanding in the sector. On May 7, it acquired rights to market Starbucks Corp.'s consumer and food-service products for $7.15 billion.

JAB Holding also owns coffee company Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Peet's Coffee & Tea and Caribou Coffee Co.

U.K.-based private equity group Bridgepoint paid £364 million, including debt, to buy Pret, as the company is known, a decade ago, the Financial Times said. It added that the sale would be a lucrative exit for Bridgepoint, which had been considering a listing for the business but decided it would get a better price through a sale.

Pret, which started in London in 1986, sells sandwiches, salads and wraps. It has 381 outlets in the U.K., 92 in the U.S., and others in Hong Kong, France, China, Dubai, Denmark, Singapore and the Netherlands. It serves more than 300,000 customers every day. It generates £879 million in revenue, although the companies did not specify for what period.

JAB will acquire Pret through JAB Holding Company S.à r.l. and JAB Consumer Fund, a vehicle backed by what it describes as "a group of like-minded, long-term oriented investors."