JAB Holding may have competition for Panera Bread, The Post has learned.
Brazilian private equity giant 3G Capital is seriously weighing a rival bid for the 2,036-store chain, sources close to the situation said.
3G, which counts Warren Buffett as a backer — and owns Burger King and Tim Hortons and recently agreed to buy Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — has hired investment bank Lazard to study the possibility of a bid, sources said.
“3G is definitely looking at Panera and has the capacity to make a rival bid,” a source close to the situation said.
If 3G moves to top JAB’s $7.5 billion offer for Panera, it would put two of the world’s largest PE firms in direct competition for what is likely the first time.
JAB and 3G have been seen as allies. For example, Olivier Goudet, JAB’s chief executive, is chair of 3G’s Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The two firms have also invested in each other’s deals, sources close to the firms said.
“The idea of them being in combat with each other is really unusual,” a source who’s an investment banker said.
“Given that they invest in each other’s deals, it would be like going to war with your neighbor,” the banker said.
JAB, the investment vehicle for the reclusive billionaire Reimann family, of Germany, signed a $315-a-share cash merger agreement with Panera last week. Panera shares closed Monday at $313.30.
It was an exclusive sales process whereby Panera did not shop itself to other suitors, an investment banker said.
Both JAB and 3G are on a global buying spree. They have a similar strategy of investing in a space and expanding their businesses via acquisition.
3G’s Tim Hortons is trying to increase its presence outside its Canadian home base and could do that quickly by buying Panera and boosting Panera’s struggling morning business.
Luxembourg-based JAB owns Keurig Green Mountain, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
JAB will start selling Caribou and Pete’s coffee at Panera if its deal closes as planned in the third quarter, the source close to the situation said.
The firm also controls beauty care and hair business Coty and fashion brands Bally and Jimmy Choo.
St. Louis-based Panera has agreed to pay JAB a termination fee of $215 million, or 3 percent, if it accepts a greater offer.
When announcing the Panera deal, JAB’s Goudet said, “We have long admired [Panera founder] Ron Shaich.”
He added: “I have great respect for the strong business that he, together with his management team, its franchisees and its associates, has built.”
Shaich said he planned on staying with the company.
3G, meanwhile, has a reputation for putting in its own management teams.
But Panera’s shares are held widely enough that the highest bid will likely win, sources said.
In February, 3G’s $143 billion approach for Unilever was rejected, sources said, in what was 3G’s first big public M&A stumble.
A 3G spokesman and Alexander Hecker, a Lazard banker helping 3G, did not return calls.