Hotel Chocolat Group PLC said Monday that it has agreed to take full control of its Rabot 1745 Ltd. joint venture, created by the company and Chairman Andrew Gerrie in 2016 to develop a range of beauty products.
The British chocolatier said it will buy the 53% stake in the JV it doesn’t already own –including a 40.5% shareholding held by Mr. Gerrie– for four pounds ($5.52) and the settlement of debts owed to Mr. Gerrie totaling GBP744,249.
The company said it will issue 203,903 shares to its chairman to pay for the debt and that the number of shares has been calculated based on its closing price on last Wednesday, the last trading day prior to negotiation of the acquisition.
Hotel Chocolat said Rabot reported a net loss of GBP400,000 for the year to June 30, 2020 and that the group is well placed to leverage the value of its inventory and further develop its intellectual property.