UK-based investment fund Mid Europa Partners (MEP) has acquired Serbia’s Danube Foods Group (DFG) for €575 million.
DFG gathers Serbian companies that conduct business in the dairy-products sector, including Imlek, Mlekara Subotica, confectionery manufacturer Bambi and mineral-water and soda plant Knjaz Miloš, as well as the dairies owned by Imlek in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
The transaction was performed by the EBRD and leading European banks including UniCredit, Raiffeisen, ING, BNP Paribas and Citibank, as well as local partner Andrej Jovanovi?. DFG's director of corporate and regulatory affairs, Svetlana Glumac, said that the transaction should be closed in the first half of the year, after the conditions of the sale contract have been met.
MEP is focused on Central and Eastern Europe, and since its foundation in 1999, the company had total capital of €4.2 billion.
With over €400 million of turnover in 2014, DFG is the Serbian and regional leader in the milk and dairy-product market and in the sale of confectionery products, mineral water and energy drinks, which it exports to the Western European market.
The founder and managing partner of MEP, Thierry Baudon, told local daily Blic that MEP will support the management of the companies within DFG in efforts to develop further and will also help increase exports to other markets in the region where their brands are recognised, but could sell bigger quantities.
MEP also plans to expand through selective acquisitions of companies that fit the strategy of the members of the group, intends to improve the production capabilities of all the members of the group, and strengthen links with local suppliers and buyers, Baudon remarked.
For his part, Serbia’s Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Rasim Ljaji?, said that he does not expect that the sale of DFG will in any way affect competition on the market.
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