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France's Lactalis and Bel close deal on purchase of Bel Shostka Ukraine, number of assets in Europe
KYIV. Oct 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The French corporations Lactalis Group and Bel Group on September 30 completed a deal to buy Bel-owned Royal Bel Leerdammer NL, Bel Italia, Bel Deutschland, the Leerdammer brand and Bel Shostka Ukraine in exchange for Lactalis’ 1.59 million shares of Bel (23.16% of the total).
According to a joint statement by Bel and Lactalis posted on the Bel Group’s website, Bel’s wholly-owned subsidiary Sicopa will transfer the said assets to Lactalis in exchange for Lactalis’ stake. Following the transaction, Lactalis will reduce its stake in Bel’s charter capital from 23.16% to 0.9%.
"By acquiring Leerdammer and Shostka, we have now completed our offering with a range of food brands that consumers know and love. We want to turn the European Leerdammer brand into a global one by tapping into our worldwide reach. We are delighted to welcome new staff backed by their cheese-making pedigree into our group," Lactalis Group Chairman Emmanuel Besnier said.
"The transaction also offers good growth prospects in Italy and Germany by expanding the family firm’s European footprint. Lactalis gains a foothold in the Dutch cheese market backed by two production plants and a local collection facility. The Shostka acquisition further allows Lactalis to expand its Ukrainian business, where it has operated for the last 25 years. Some one thousand Dutch, German, Italian and Ukrainian employees will join Lactalis," the report says.
"Selling business holdings including the Leerdammer brand is in line with Bel Group strategy, which aims to take its business beyond cheese products to bolster its positioning as a major healthy snacking player. The transaction gives Bel further opportunities to advance its product offering strategy on its three further key market segments, over the medium-term achieve balanced revenues between dairy, fruits and plant-based, while also stepping up moves into high-growth future markets like Asia-Pacific and North America," according to the document.
Lactalis Group owns two milk processing plants in Ukraine in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The company manufactures products under the brands President, Lactel, Galbani, Societe, etc.
The French dairy group Lactalis is represented by 237 factories in 42 countries.
