Speciality bakery group Aryzta, which is best known for its Cuisine de France brand, announced on Tuesday its intention to appoint Michael Andres, a former president of McDonald’s US, to its board as an independent director.

McDonald’s is a key customer for Aryzta, with the bakery company supplying burger buns to the fast-food giant among other products.

Aryzta also announced its intention to appoint two other independent directors to the board; Gregory Flack and Tim Lodge.

Gregory Flack is executive chair of US frozen consumer foods company Green Chile Foods, having previously served as chief executive of frozen food group Schwan Foods from 2008 to 2013.

Tim Lodge is recently retired as chief financial officer (CFO) at COFCO, the Chinese agribusiness conglomerate with operations in food and grain trading. Lodge also served as CFO of Tate & Lyle, the UK food ingredients giant.

Capital increase

On top of the new board nominations, Aryzta announced it had entered into an underwriting agreement with five international banks as it moves ahead with its plans to raise €800m in fresh capital from financial markets in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet and reduce debts.

Aryzta said it had struck underwriting agreements with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS, as process banks for the deal, while Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and HSBC would act as joint global coordinators.

Markets have reacted positively to the announcement with shares in Aryzta rallying as much as 15% in trading on Tuesday morning to hit highs of €8.82.