The European Fee has accredited Hartree Companions Holdings’ acquisition of French multinational inexperienced espresso and cocoa dealer Touton below the EU Merger Regulation.
The deal would lengthen Hartree’s current strikes into “mushy” commodities, akin to espresso, after primarily specializing in vitality, uncooked supplies and monetary markets. The Touton acquisition follows Hartree’s July 2025 acquisition of ED&F Man Commodities’ core enterprise items, together with ED&F Man subsidiary and occasional dealer Volcafe.
In a 2023-24 sustainability report, Bordeaux-based Touton stated it processed about 104,000 metric tons of espresso, which interprets to roughly 1.7 million 60-kilogram baggage. By comparability, Touton reported processing 308,000 metric tons of cocoa in 2023-24. Reuters final 12 months described Touton as buying and selling practically 10% of the world’s cocoa.
The monetary phrases of the Touton acquisition, which was first introduced in August 2025, haven’t been publicly disclosed.
In response to the Fee’s assertion, the transaction is “applied by the use of a Share Buy Settlement referring to the acquisition of 100% of the shares” of Touton SA (France) by Hartree Companions Holdings (U.S.), which is collectively managed by Oaktree Capital Group Holdings (U.S.) and Brookfield Company (Canada).
The European Fee additionally acknowledged that the transaction “offers rise to no competitors issues as there are restricted horizontal overlaps and vertical hyperlinks between the Hartree buying group and Touton.”
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