Confectioner Cloetta Acquires Leaf Holdings

Swedish confectioners Cloetta and Leaf International have merged to create a publicly traded company with sales of $843.5 million (SEK5.7bn). The new group will operate under the brand Cloetta, and investors in Cloetta will hold 42.4% of the combined entity while Leaf shareholders — the private equity groups Nordic Capital and CVC Capital — will own the rest.

PRESS RELEASE:

Completion of the merger with LEAF
As previously announced Cloetta AB (publ) (“Cloetta”) has on 15 December 2011 entered into an agreement with Leaf Holding S.A. (Not 1) to acquire all shares in Leaf Holland B.V. (“LEAF”). All conditions for the merger have, as previously announced, been fulfilled.

The transaction has today been completed, as Cloetta has acquired and become owner to all shares in LEAF. Payment for the acquired business has been made partly by way of Cloetta issuing a vendor loan note to Leaf Holding in the amount of SEK 1,400 million and paying SEK 100 million in cash, and partly by an issue of 165 186 924 C-shares to Nordic Capital and CVC, through Leaf Holding S.A., in accordance with the resolution by the Extraordinary General Meeting of Cloetta on 15 February 2012.

New Board of Directors takes office
As a result of the announcement that Cloetta has closed the acquisition of the shares in LEAF, the changes to the Board of Directors of Cloetta, resolved by the Extraordinary General Meeting on 15 February 2012, become effective. The Board of Directors of Cloetta thus consists of Lennart Bylock (Chairman), Hans Eckerström, Håkan Kirstein, Adriaan Nühn, Robert-Jan van Ogtrop, Mikael Svenfelt, Olof Svenfelt, Meg Tivéus and Peter Törnquist, as well as the employee representatives Birgitta Junland and Lena Grönedal.

Media inquiries, please contact:
Jacob Broberg, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, Cloetta, +46 70 190 00 33.

The information contained in this press release is such that Cloetta is required to disclose pursuant to the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act and/or the Swedish Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication on February 16, 2012 at 01:30 p.m. CET.

About Cloetta
Cloetta, founded in 1862, is a leading confectionary company in the Nordic region, the Netherlands, and Italy. In total, Cloetta products are sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. Cloetta owns some of the strongest brands on the market, e.g. Läkerol, Cloetta, Jenkki, Kexchoklad, Malaco, Sportlife, Saila, Red Band and Sperlari. Cloetta has 12 production units in six countries. Cloetta’s B-shares are traded on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.

More information about Cloetta is available on www.cloetta.com.