Unilever takes over local ice cream maker Betty Ice, one of the most important players on the on the local ice cream producers market.

Betty Ice owns a factory in Suceava with a capacity of 120 tons a day and has its own stores in some important cities as well as a network of over 100 distribution kiosks all over the country. Betty Ice was founded 25 years ago and its turnover in 2016 reached 40 million euros, up 10% from 2015.

Started in 2017, the negotiations were concluded at the end of January 2018, when the Romanian ice cream producer Betty Ice was fully acquired by Unilever South Central Europe. The sale purchase agreement is subject to regulatory approval by the Romanian competition authorities.

Following the acquisition, Betty Ice will operate as a standalone unit within Unilever and will be led by its founder, Vasile Armenean, acting as General Manager.

The legal assistance to the seller was provided by Maravela|Asociații and comprises all transaction related aspects, including due diligence, preparing the tender, negotiation of the transaction documents, liaising with the competition authorities.

The buyer was assisted in the legal matters by Eversheds.

Maravela|Asociații’s team assigned to the project consisted of over 10 professionals. Gelu Maravela, Alexandra Rîmbu, Daniel Alexie and Anca Băițan assisted regarding the due diligence process, Gelu Maravela, Alina Popescu, Dana Rădulescu, Alexandra Rîmbu and Mihai Buciuman provided assistance during the negotiation of the transaction documents, whilst Alina Popescu, Alexandra Rîmbu and Magda Grigore assisted with all competition related aspects. Financial and tax assistance was provided by Gelu Maravela, Alexandra Rîmbu and Felix Tapai.

With regards to the financial aspects, Betty Ice was equally assisted by Ernst & Young România, with a team lead by Florin Vasilică and BrinkThink Management, through Florin Cerna, as financial and strategic consultant, while Unilever was assisted in the financial aspects by Deloitte.