The European Commission has approved Hartree Partners Holdings’ acquisition of French multinational green coffee and cocoa trader Touton under the EU Merger Regulation.
The deal would extend Hartree’s recent moves into “soft” commodities, such as coffee, after primarily focusing on energy, raw materials and financial markets. The Touton acquisition follows Hartree’s July 2025 acquisition of ED&F Man Commodities’ core business units, including ED&F Man subsidiary and coffee trader Volcafe.
In a 2023-24 sustainability report, Bordeaux-based Touton said it processed about 104,000 metric tons of coffee, which translates to approximately 1.7 million 60-kilogram bags. By comparison, Touton reported processing 308,000 metric tons of cocoa in 2023-24. Reuters last year described Touton as trading nearly 10% of the world’s cocoa.
The financial terms of the Touton acquisition, which was first announced in August 2025, have not been publicly disclosed.
According to the Commission’s statement, the transaction is “implemented by way of a Share Purchase Agreement relating to the acquisition of 100% of the shares” of Touton SA (France) by Hartree Partners Holdings (U.S.), which is jointly controlled by Oaktree Capital Group Holdings (U.S.) and Brookfield Corporation (Canada).
The European Commission also stated that the transaction “gives rise to no competition concerns as there are limited horizontal overlaps and vertical links between the Hartree acquiring group and Touton.”
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