Bambi, Knjaz Milos and Mlekara Subotica to operate as part of Imlek - Danube Foods Group to consolidate companies by end-2012 to go public

Companies Bambi-Banat, Mlekara Subotica and Knjaz Milos may start operating as part of Imlek until the end of this year. Namely, this is a part of Danube Foods Group's consolidation plan for its food and beverage companies, which is closely connected with the group's announcement that it will soon go public.

- According to the plans of this investment fund, we should go public until the year's end, probably on the London or the Warsaw Stock Exchange – Svetlana Glumac, director of corporate and regulatory affairs at Danube Foods Group, says in a talk with eKapija.

She notes that this means that everything will be managed and run under the brand of Imlek, but only for the purpose of going public, because these companies will still exist and operate under their current name.

She explains that the plan is to list securities through an initial public offering, which would definitely secure them a better position in further sale negotiations.

- We plan to complete the consolidation process and go public by the end of 2012, unless we sell some of the companies until then. We are an investment fund that simply waits for its buyer. I do not say we are not happy here. On the contrary, we have invested a lot in all our companies in Serbia. For example, both Bambi-Banat and Imlek have grown significantly since 2002, when the Fund entered the market. We've worked a lot on these companies. But one of them may be sold, after which we will consolidate remaining companies.

Bambi before Imlek

Svetlana Glumac (Photo: ekapija)

When asked if they are closer to selling Bambi or Imlek at the moment, eKapija's interlocutor replies:

- Bambi is negotiating all the time and as much as Imlek. When it comes to Imlek and Campina giving up its acquisition, we had a problem with an irrational exchange rate, which was growing all the time since we had agreed on the price, and we really did not want to give such a large company for nothing. But I must admit that there is also a patriotic moment in that, and not only profit. We do not want to depreciate the value of any of our companies or people working at them.

On the other hand, negotiations on the sale of Bambi and Imlek have also been underway all this time.

She pointed out at an earlier press conference that even Campina might be a buyer in the future:

- We are open to negotiations with whoever expresses interest and appreciates our products as their own.

Regional positioning

With the recent EUR 8 million takeover of the dairy company Natura Vita in Teslic, the Republic of Srpska (RS), Imlek has also grown significantly stronger on the regional level. In this way, they wanted to affect further consolidation of the milk market in both RS and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Svetlana Glumac denies that the acquisition of the Teslic-based dairy contributed to the closing of a production plant of Novosadska Mlekara (Novi Sad Dairy), stating that the takeover was completed much before a decision was made to close aforementioned plant.

- We already own Mlijekoprodukt in Kozarska Dubica. By merging these companies, we have become the second strongest dairy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but since we also export Imlek's products, we can say we rank first there as well... Also, Mlijekoprodukt and Natura Vita export about 50 percent of their products to Croatia, thus creating a balance in milk production in the region. Our dairy in Macedonia - Bi Milk, is also among the top three.

Benefiting from Croatia's admission to the EU

Croatia's admission to the European Union may also secure a better market position for Serbia, which will not have to pay duties on the export of agricultural products to the neighboring market. The director of corporate affairs at Danube Foods Group hopes that our country will benefit from that.

- The admission of Croatia to the EU will definitely contribute to a change in the terms of operations, especially when it comes to the milk market. Serbia will be free from paying duties on the export of agricultural products to Croatia - she says and adds that the Group has plans for better positioning in Croatia as well.

Glumac announces for our web portal that they will negotiate the inclusion of dairy products of the Group's dairy from Kozarska Dubica and Natura Vita with large market chains in Croatia as early as next week.

Jelena Djelic