Malaga Investments has secured full ownership of What’s Cooking Group following a successful, simplified squeeze-out.
The Coopman and Van der Pluym families, long-standing major shareholders of What’s Cooking Group, have successfully convinced remaining shareholders to accept their voluntary takeover bid. The initial bid offered €148 per share, but was adjusted to €143.50 per share following dividend distributions.
To finance the bid, the family's major shareholders took out a €90 million loan from KBC earlier this year and intend to meet this debt obligation by distributing a € 24-per-share superdividend at What's Cooking’s extraordinary general meeting on 6 August 2026.
Operating through their bid vehicle, Malaga Investment SCSp, the families have also taken What’s Cooking private (delisting from Euronext Brussels at the end of July 2026) to provide a stable, long-term operational foundation for the company’s future growth plans – including organic expansion and cross-border roll-ups across Europe.
In a previous interview, CFO Yves Regniers discussed What's Cooking's major pivot in recent years, detailing the company's decision to divest more than half of its legacy revenue by carving out its cold cuts/charcuterie division to Aurelius. This freed up the company’s capital and focus to double down on high-margin, high-demand convenience meals (led by flagship brand Come a casa®).
At the same time, the company closed on a €29 million acquisition of Sveltic, a French fresh- and frozen-ready-meal producer with a strong presence in Southern Europe.
Read more: CFO Yves Regniers on What’s Cooking’s major strategic pivot
“Next to retail, we’re also doubling down on supplying ready meals to restaurants, pubs, bars, and caterers – so broadly speaking, the hospitality sector,” Yves said. “This is a focused strategy, not just for growth – but for resilience and long-term value.”
With Malaga's backing, the company will continue to execute on its broader operational transformation goals and aggressive M&A strategy, without the short-term pressures of public capital markets.
The controlling shareholders have confirmed that the operational strategy, leadership team, and workforce policies across sites in Belgium, France, Poland, and the UK will remain intact.
The deal teams behind this takeover
Clifford Chance advised Malaga Investment on corporate, tax, financing, and regulatory structuring. “Our team delivered a fully integrated approach across corporate, tax and financing aspects, including structuring the bid through the use of a Luxembourg SCSp as the bid vehicle, advising on the financing of the bid and on shareholder engagement to secure the necessary tender commitments, and guiding the FSMA approval process,” Clifford Chance said in a statement.
The team was led by Patrice Viaene and Gauthier Peemans, with support from Niek De Pauw, Gillis Waelkens, Alexandre Ooms, Wim Aerts, Thomas Linard de Guertechin, Yonathan Tison, Sherine Denisse and Céline Lievens.
Eubelius acted as legal counsel to What’s Cooking Group NV, while KBC Securities acted as financial advisor to Malaga Investment, and Degroof Petercam Corporate Finance provided an independent valuation report.
