Paris, March 9, 2016 – French Avril group and German Tönnies group have finalized, on March 8, 2016, their agreement in relation to Alliance des Viandes de France SAS, a joint venture established in the Normandy region. The purpose of the joint venture is to produce “5F” pork meat (pork born, raised, slaughtered, butchered and processed in France) for the European end consumer market, with operations set to start from April 2016.

The joint venture will allow both groups to profit from each others’ expertise in the pork sector and create strategic synergies. Agreement on the joint venture was finalized after several months of negotiations, upon clearance of the transaction by the European Commission on March 3, 2016.

Tönnies is a global German multi-tier food industry business with core activities in slaughtering, butchering and processing of pigs and beef cattle. Avril (formerly Sofiproteol) is an international French agro-industrial group specializing, among others, in human and animal nutrition.

The parties to the joint venture were assisted by Jeantet with a team consisting of Karl Hepp de Sevelinges, Partner, Ingrid Fauvelière, Counsel, and Ruben Koslar, Associate, on the M&A aspects and Bertrand Barrier, Partner, and Oleksiy Soloviov, Associate, for the Ukrainian merger clearance. Gide assisted the parties in connection with the European merger clearance of the transaction, with Emmanuel Reille, Partner, and Laura Castex, Counsel.