On Tuesday, shareholders of Elior (ELIOR.PA), a French catering company, approved the company’s acquisition of Derichebourg’s (DBG.PA) DMS arm.

This merger is expected to create a larger outsourcing company. The two companies had announced their plans in December 2022, wherein Elior will acquire Derichebourg Multiservices (DMS) in exchange for new shares of Elior at a price of 5.65 euros per share. With this merger, Derichebourg’s stake in Elior will double to 48.4%.

Elior has become a new global leader in contract catering and multiservices with around 134,000 employees. The acquisition will strengthen the strategic and financial position of Elior Group with a reduction in debt deleveraging from 8.3x to 6.2x on a pro forma basis by the end of September 2022.

The shareholder meeting has approved the contribution of 30 million DMS holding shares to Elior by Derichebourg, and the election of Daniel Derichebourg as director.

This will pave the way for his appointment as the new Chairperson and CEO of Elior, replacing Bernard Gault, who had held the position for the past 15 months. Gault stated that the Board of Directors will now meet to finalize the transaction and formally appoint Daniel Derichebourg as CEO.