30.10.2018

Vapo – Merger of Vapo’s Grow&Care Division and Dutch BVB Substrates

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Private M&A

We are assisting Vapo in an arrangement in which Vapo’s Grow&Care division and Dutch family-owned company BVB Substrates B.V. are being combined into a new company to be established, Kekkilä-BVB Oy. The new company is intended to begin operations at the start of 2019.

Through this combination, Kekkilä-BVB will be Europe’s leading and most versatile professional agriculture and hobby-gardening operator. The pro forma turnover of the new company will be approximately 240 million euros and it will employ approximately 500 people. Vapo will own 70% of the shares in the new company and the van Buuren family’s investment company will own 30%.

Vapo is one of the largest European operators in the professional agriculture business and the largest producer of garden peat. The company is the market leader in the Nordic countries with its well-known Kekkilä and Hasselfors Garden brands. It markets professional agriculture products under the Kekkilä Professional brand, which is exported to approximately 80 countries. Furthermore, Vapo globally sells raw materials for use in substrate.

BVB Substrates B.V. is a Dutch family-owned company founded in 1908, owned and run by the van Buuren family. BVB’s most important business areas are professional agriculture, consumer business and services for landscapers. The company primarily exports under the BVB Substrates brand to over 80 countries.

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