Babayevsky acquires stake in Voronezh

Eurofood, April 26, 2001

Confectionery concern Babayevsky, Russia's leading producer of confectionery goods, has wrapped up a purchase deal for a 75% plus one share package in the Voronezh Confectionery plant, head of the company's financial and investment department Pavel Zaikin has told Interfax.

Zaikin said that this share package was bought from the Sun Capital Partners group, but did not disclose the cost of the deal. Zaikin said specialists will soon work out an investment program for the plant, the production capacity of which is estimated at over 25 000 tonnes a year.

The company's ongoing dispute between with Inkombank over an additional issue of Babayevsky shares should not impact on the enterprise's investment plans, he said. "The court proceedings could go on a long time, but they should not pose an obstacle to plans for developing the concern," he said.

At an extraordinary shareholders meeting in February a year ago, the company resolved to increase its charter capital by 27.884 million common shares at a par value of 0.5 kopecks apiece. Inkombank contested the decision, however, as it saw its formerly controlling stake decrease to 38.3% in the charter capital. The litigation has already been going on for more than a year.

The concern, in addition to Babayevsky and the Voronezh plant, includes Yuzhuralkonditer Sormov Confectionery, the Novosibirsk Chocolate Factory and the Zeya confectioners, as well as roughly 50 retail outlets. The enterprise is able to turn out almost 200 000t of product per year.