German investment company Joh. A. Benckiser (JAB) has made a €12.50 a share offer for Dutch coffee and tea group DE Master Blenders, valuing the Dutch firm at €7.5bn.

This is lower than the €12.75 indicative offer JAB made for DE Master Blenders at the end of last month. The German company has already built up a 15% stake in the Dutch firm, which was spun off by Sara Lee and listed in Amsterdam last year.

The deal has the unanimous backing of DE Master Blender’s board, chairman Norman Sorensen said in a statement.

DE Master Blenders will remain an independent company within the group, the headquarters and the R&D centre will remain in the Netherlands and all manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands will remain ‘operational’ the statement said.

A company spokesman told Nos television DEMB’s chief executive Jan Bennink will earn €10m on the deal. Bennink earned €75m from the sale of specialty foods group Numico to Danone several years ago.