Toronto, Sept. 5 - Hat Trick Beverages Inc. is pleased to announce that it has received an initial proposal to merge with a privately held Italian manufacturer of specialty beverage vending equipment. The proposal is to acquire a majority position in Hat Trick for a combination of cash and stock.
The buyer is a well-established supplier in the European market, and a PRE IPO company (Frankfurt Exchange) flush with cash, with assets of approximately $7 to $10 million Euros, and a track record established over 15 plus years of operation. Their capitalization in Frankfurt is expected to be in the $100 million Euro range, once trading begins. They have had some very significant success in Europe, but have not yet approached the North American market.
Hat Trick CEO, Sender Vaiser, explains, "This is a solid company that was originally introduced to Hat Trick as a possible supplier of equipment for our hot beverages division. Over the last couple of months, we have been in extensive discussions to supply Tango Cafe with their product line. They were very interested in our business plans, and ultimately decided that we offered a superb opportunity to not only access the North American market as a supplier, but as a public company as well. The Italian company also operates a coffee roasting division, a logistics centre, and a white label coffee packaging division of their specialty coffee. The buyer is also in a late stage development phase of their own 'Vitamin Water' Cold Drink division.
Mr Mario Capolini, a spokesperson with the company, said, 'The fact that Hat Trick is already engaged in the cold drink business is of great appeal to us, and it appears to us that there are some great synergies with both companies. Our early revenue projections of the Vitamin Water sales just in USA through Hat Trick's already established network have the potential to add additional $10-$12 million dollars in gross revenues to the combined companies. The distribution of our equipment would be a given throughout North America, through Hat Trick's already existing Tango Cafe infrastructure. The number of current pending deals Hat Trick has going is also of great interest to us.'
While it is premature to name the Manufacturer, the intentions are clear. We will be working with legal counsel, our corporate advisors who presented us with this opportunity, and our financial advisors to pull together a comprehensive plan. In the mean time, we will update our shareholders as appropriate while these discussions progress."