JAB

A unique partnership of long-term investors in consumer goods & services

Half Year Report 2024
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About JAB

A unique partnership of long-term investors in consumer goods & services

Our Platform Investing Philosophy

Our Heritage

The history of JAB dates back to the early 19th Century, when predecessors of the Reimann family established Benckiser, a chemical and industrial manufacturing company based in Germany.

During the early part of the 20th century, Benckiser was a small to medium sized business, primarily a supplier to the food industry, and its main products included processed cheese, salts for blood treatment, supplements for baby food, and chemicals to soften water.

In the 1980s the company expanded as it acquired and integrated its European and North American household products business and cosmetics companies, before spinning off cosmetics into Coty Inc. in 1996. In 1999, it merged Benckiser with Reckitt & Colman to form the consumer goods business Reckitt Benckiser.

In 2012, JAB Holding Company was formed as a partner-led investment firm, with the consolidation of all business assets, and its portfolio has expanded to the present day.

For more background on the history of Benckiser from the 1920s to the 1940s, please visit the ALFRED LANDECKER FOUNDATION website.

Team

Our leadership team

JAB is overseen by its leadership team including our three Managing Partners, Joachim Creus (CEO), Peter Harf (Chairman) and Frank Engelen (CFO), together with seven (Senior) Partners and six Managing Directors.

Peter Harf

Managing Partner,
Chairman

Mr Harf joined JAB in 1981 and is the visionary and founder of the current investment firm structure created in 2012. Over the past 40+ years, he has overseen JAB as its managed capital grew from $100 million to over $50 billion. Mr Harf has been CEO and Chairman of several of JAB's portfolio companies, and is currently Chairman of Coty and a member of the Board of Directors of JDE Peet's and Keurig Dr Pepper. He is also the Founder of Delete Blood Cancer (DKMS), a global organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer with over 10 million registered donors. Mr Harf previously served as Chairman of Anheuser-Busch InBev and as a member of the Board of Directors of Burger King.

Joachim Creus

Managing Partner,
Vice Chairman & CEO

Mr Creus joined JAB in 2010 and has played a critical role in building it into a global investment firm. He has been at the center of JAB’s major investments and expansion initiatives, including all of its platform acquisitions and the creation of JAB Consumer Partners. A lawyer by training, he has 20+ years of experience in M&A, complex cross-border legal and tax matters, and equity and debt financing. Mr Creus serves as a Director on the Board of many JAB companies, including Keurig Dr Pepper, JDE Peet’s and Coty. Prior to joining JAB, he held senior legal & tax positions at Siemens, Rödl & Partner and Tiberghien Lawyers.

Frank Engelen

Managing Partner,
CFO

Mr Engelen joined JAB as partner in 2020. Previously, he was a partner at PwC for 15+ years, of which five years as a member of the Management Board of PwC Netherlands responsible for the Advisory business, and two years as director and member of the Executive Board of PwC Europe. He has 25+years of experience in consumer goods and financial services and has worked with JAB as advisor since 2013. Mr. Engelen is a non-executive director of several companies including JDE Peet’s, Independence Pet Holdings and Pinnacle Pet Group.

Anant Bhalla

Senior Partner,
Chief Investment Officer

Mr. Bhalla has a proven track record as an investor, business builder and operator in financial services across multiple companies spanning asset management, insurance and wealth management.

From 2020-24, Mr. Bhalla led the successful transformation of the ~$70 Bn balance sheet of American Equity (NYSE: AEL) into a prudent investor for insurance policyholders with capabilities in asset structuring, private credit and real assets. Mr. Bhalla delivered a 3x return for shareholders in tenor as CEO, culminating in a take private merger with Brookfield Reinsurance for a $4.3 billion valuation. Mr. Bhalla improved business returns from an 8% ROE to 18+% from 2020 to 2023 by investing 25% of assets to private credit and real assets and being a disciplined underwriter and operator.

Prior to AEL, Mr. Bhalla brought an entrepreneurial approach and business mindset to the role of public company CFO, CRO and Treasurer across multiple publicly traded, Fortune 500 companies including Brighthouse Financial, MetLife, AIG, Lincoln Financial and Ameriprise Financial.

David Bell

Senior Partner

Mr Bell is in his 12th year at JAB, having joined in 2012. Over the past eleven years he has led substantially all of JAB's major portfolio transactions. He has over 30 years of investment, oversight and business strategy experience, which includes spending four years at Mars driving Corporate Strategy and M&A, and eight years in the Consumer Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs.

Ricardo Rittes

Senior Partner

Mr Rittes joined JAB in 2019 and brings 20+ years of financial risk management and capital markets experience. He started his career as an investment banker in London, New York and Latin America, and subsequently spent 14 years as part of a small leadership team building AB InBev in New York, Brussels and Latin America. At AB InBev, he served as the finance VP responsible for cash flow integration, banking relationships and treasury. In that capacity, he partnered with rating agencies and financial institutions across the world, and executed $75+ billion worth of financings. He also served as CFO of Ambev and led its successful expansion in Central America.

Gordon
von Bretten

Partner

Mr Von Bretten brings close to 30 years of experience in creating value and enhancing performance, most recently as Chief Transformation Officer and member of the Executive Committee at Coty, where he led the end-to-end transformation. During his tenure, Coty executed over $700M in net cost reductions, reduced operating leverage by 4x and returned the company to growth, with a CAGR of 12%. Previously, Mr Von Bretten served in a variety of leadership roles, including five years as an operating partner at KKR Capstone, where he was responsible for large-scale carve-outs and performance improvement programs across the European portfolio. Prior to this, Mr Von Bretten spent 4 years as CPO at Klöckner Pentaplast, as well as over 15 years in management consulting with AlixPartners and Kearney.

Patricia Capel

Partner

Ms Capel joined JAB in 2021 following 25 years at AB InBev and Ambev, and most recently led AB InBev’s commercial operations in Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay. She has extensive global experience, including in the United States, Russia, Latin America, Belgium and Canada. At AB InBev, she held numerous roles including VP of Global People, and was a member of the ABI Global Diversity & Inclusion Council. Ms Capel also previously worked at PwC and Cargill Agricola.

Konrad Meyer

Partner

Mr Meyer joined JAB in 2018. He brings 15+ years of industry and investment expertise, and previously served as Investment Director of Waterland Private Equity and as interim CFO of Pret a Manger.

Lubomira Rochet

Partner

Ms Rochet joined JAB in 2021. She previously spent seven years as Chief Digital Officer and member of the Executive Committee at L'Oréal, where she led the beauty giant's marketing and commercial pivot to a digital-first company. She is a recognized leader in digital business transformation, with extensive global experience across multiple industries. Ms Rochet has also held senior roles at Microsoft and Valtech, a digital marketing agency.

Xavier Croquez

Managing Director,
Head of Portfolio Management

Mr Croquez joined JAB Holding Company in January 2013 as Strategic Analyst and has been in charge of Investor Services at JCP since 2020. His prior experience includes 20 years of Equity Research in Consumer Goods, 6 Years at Mars Inc. in various roles in Sales & Marketing, as well as three years at Apax Partners.

Rafael Cunha

Managing Director,
Head of Finance & Treasury

Mr Cunha joined JAB in 2019 and is currently the Head of Finance & Treasury. He has approx. 15 years of investment and finance experience and played a key role in JAB's fixed income and capital markets initiatives over the past years. Prior to JAB, he held various finance roles in consumer & healthcare private equity and was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Rafael holds an MBA from Stanford University.

Yoana Nenova

Managing Director,
Head of Responsible and Sustainable Investing

Ms Nenova joined JAB in 2014 and leads JAB’s Responsible and Sustainable Investing efforts. She has 10+ years of investment experience in the consumer space, and played a key role in the development of JAB’s Fast-Casual Restaurant platform. Prior to JAB, Yoana was part of the Consumer team at UBS Investment bank in London.

Stuart Perowne

Managing Director,
Head of Equity Trading

Mr Perowne joined JAB in 2020 and is currently the Head of Equity Trading. He brings 20 years experience across banking, capital markets and trading and works across JAB’s portfolio, especially in relation to listed assets, applying expertise in relation to trading, structuring, hedging and financing situations. Prior to joining JAB, Mr Perowne spent 13 years at Citi where he held a number of roles, most recently Director within the Strategic Equity Flow team. He started his career in investment banking at Lazard and holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy & Psychology from Oxford University.

Steven
Voogd Boom

Managing Director,
Head of Finance & Reporting

Mr Voogd Boom joined JAB in 2019 and has been instrumental in the evolution of JAB’s finance function. He has 15+ years of experience in corporate finance, accounting and M&A, holds an Executive Master in Finance degree from HEC Paris and is a Certified Public Accountant with the Dutch Accountant Organization. Previously, he worked at PwC and held senior finance positions at DaVita International and Lumileds.

Sebastiaan Wolvers

Managing Director,
Head of Legal & Tax

Mr Wolvers joined JAB in 2022 and brings 20+ years of tax, legal, structuring and financial services experience. Previously, he was a partner at PwC, advising mostly Dutch listed multinationals until he became a trusted advisor of JAB in 2018. Since then, Mr. Wolvers has been involved with substantially all of JAB's major portfolio transactions.

Our Investment Platforms

Since the formation of JAB Holding Company in 2012, we have diversified our investment portfolio by expanding into different categories in the consumer goods and services sectors. Through our Global Investment Platforms, we control businesses that operate in multiple segments. Each business has established its own robust business model and strategy by leveraging industry-leading brands and a tailored portfolio of products and services. These brands are distributed through a variety of channels in different geographies, and, as a result, address the needs of a broad consumer base.