JAB buys Panera for $7.5bn

German Billionaire Reimann family’s JAB, the Luxemburg-based investment company has bought US Bakery and Sandwich chain Panera Bread to its fast growing US food and beverage empire, for $7.5bn.  The $315 per share cash deal will be under the same roof as Keurig Green Mountain, Poet’s coffee, Caribou coffee,  Tea to Einstein Bros, Bagels and doughnut maker Krispy Kreme.  The Conglomerate after spending $40bn on US deals over the past decade is seeking to challenge Nestle. Panera’ shares rose of $274 on Tuesday to $311.76 yesterday, triggering a 14 percent rise, giving them a market capitalisation of $6.2bn.

Jab will annexe Panera’s 2000 restaurants across the US to its food chain and coffee houses, which includes the coffee brands Intelligentsia and Stumptown coffee and Peet’s coffee and Krispy Kreme. The bread-centric Café chain, Panera created by the founders of Au Bon Pain, Louis Kane and Ron Shaich, has seen exceptional growth since the 1990s, has more than 2000 location and $5bn in sales and over 100,000 employees.