Cérélia SA agreed to acquire Branded and private label dough business in Germany including the Knack & Back and Jus-Rol brands from General Mills, Inc..

Cérélia SA agreed to acquire Branded and private label dough business in Germany including the Knack & Back and Jus-Rol brands from General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) on November 24, 2021. In related transactions, Cérélia SA agreed to acquire Branded and private label dough businesses in UK and Ireland, including the Knack & Back and Jus-Rol brand from General Mills, Inc. on November 24, 2021. Transaction is subject to appropriate labor consultations, regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions.

Each of the transactions is expected to close by the end of fiscal 2022. As on February 7, 2022, Competition and Markets Authority has issued an initial enforcement order (IEO) to the parties for investigation. As of March 31, 2022, Competition and Markets Authority has announced that t the merger notice provided by Cérélia UK Ltd in relation to the completed acquisition by Cérélia UK Ltd of certain assets relating to the dough business of General Mills Inc., meets the requirements of section 96(2) of the Act.

Alex Kay and André Pretorius including corporate team comprised (at various stages) Laura Ackroyd, Shaun Williamson and Hugh Bannister, Harriet Sykes, Hannah Brown and Sophie Stevens; the antitrust team included Marcel Nuys and counsel Florian Huerkamp, and Sam Poole and Christon Shenolikar; the wider team included Jonathan Turnbull and Andrew Wells from London IP, Rüdiger Hoffmann and Daniel Osmanovic from Germany Corporate, and Steffen Hoerner and Wladimir Leonhard from Germany Tax of Herbert Smith Freehills Germany LLP acted as legal advisors to General Mills in the transaction.