Raiffeisen assumes majority stake of Loulis Romania

BUCHAREST - Loulis International Foods Greece sold on Thursday to the Austrian holding Leipnik Lundenburger Invest (LLI) the participation of 60 per cent for which the parties signed in April a pre-contract, the value of the transfer performed on the stock exchange market amounting to RON 106.36 M (EUR 34.08 M). The 245.89 million titles were transferred on the Deal market of Bucharest Stock Exchange (where the parties negotiate directly), for RON 0.545 per unit, 11.9 per cent more than the quotation at the closing of Wednesday, of RON 0.487 per share. Loulis International held before the transaction of Thursday 86.09 per cent of the capital of the bakery firm, and the participation decreased to 25.9 per cent.

In early April, the Hellenic group concluded a pre-contract with LLI, through which it pledged to sell 60 per cent of the shares held in the Romanian company. The company’s management had estimated at that time that the transaction would be finalized in May. The group also pledged to sell 60 per cent of the shares of the company Sofia Mel from Bulgaria.

The holding Leipnik Lundenburger Invest is controlled by Raiffeisen Holding Niederosterreich and Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich. The group operates in Central and East Europe in the bakery industry, the business with coffee automatic machines and the production of sugar. LLI holds participations in several companies from the bakery industry in Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. The bakery industry made in the last financial year sales of around EUR 587 M and processed 2.6 M tons of wheat.

The Austrian group also holds 11.2 per cent of the shares of the group with activities in sugar production Agrana and 9.9 per cent of the company Casinos Austria, which operates casinos.

Loulis Romania reported in Q1 revenues of RON 56.1 M, up 42.7 per cent over the same period in 2006.

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