Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Sold to JAB Holding Company for $374 Million

Another week, another acquisition. Today’s merger deal involves the small bagel empire Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, parent company to bagel-based QSR franchises Einstein Bros Bagels and Manhattan Bagel, along with the fully company-owned chain Noah’s New York Bagels. According to a press release issued today by Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, the business has agreed to be acquired by German private equity firm JAB Holding Company for $20.25 per share in cash – that’s a 47 percent premium over the brand’s average that values the company at approximately $374 million, to the satisfaction of the brand’s current stockholders:

Equity firm JAB Holding Company is perhaps better known by its former name, Joh. A. Benckiser, and is a parent company to several other breakfast-related brands including Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Caribou Coffee. That history makes the two businesses a good fit, as JAB chief executive officer Olivier Goudet explains in Einstein Noah’s media release:

According to the release, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group’s largest stockholder to date has been Greenlight Capital who worked to build up the brand into a desirable entity. The investment group has offered its full support of the JAB takeover to help develop Einstein Noah’s brands even further:

Tax inversion has been a hot topic in the industry recently, and it’s hard not to think of it when a United States-based company and a foreign company enter into an acquisition deal. But much like last week’s Pabst Brewing Company buyout, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group will remain headquartered in Colorado and will operate as a standalone business as terms of the acquisition.