Italy's Lavazza launches bid to take machine vendor IVS private

MILAN (Reuters) -Italian coffee maker Lavazza on Tuesday said it was investing further in the machine vending industry by acquiring a stake in machine vendor IVS for 185 million euros ($197 million) with an eye to eventually gain full control.

Lavazza said it would offer to buy out other investors in IVS at 7.15 euros per share, entailing a premium of 11% compared to the stock's closing price on Monday.

Shares in IVS failed to start trading at the market open.

The buyout offer, valuing IVS at 647 million euros, follows an agreement Lavazza signed with the majority shareholder in IVS, giving the Turin-based coffee maker the option to acquire full control of IVS from 2027.

If successful the buyout offer will hand Lavazza a 28.36% stake in IVS, adding to the 20.4% Lavazza already owns, and lead to the delisting of IVS.

IVS is currently controlled by IVS Partecipazioni which will retain its 50.75% stake until put and call options are exercised, which can happen only after the approval of IVS's financial statements for 2026.

The current management of IVS, which is the second largest player in the European Union's vending machine market with a market share of around 7%, will remain in place.

"The transaction represents a further investment by the Lavazza Group in the vending industry, in line with its strategy based on an omnichannel approach," the coffee maker said in a statement.($1 = 0.9391 euros)

(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin and Valentina Za, editing by Cristina Carlevaro)