01 June 2004 08:58
LATVIA`S PAREX BANK ACQUIRES 5.29% OF WIMM-BILL-DANN
MOSCOW. June 1 (Interfax) - Latvia's Parex Bank acquired 5.29% of the shares in Russian diary and juice giant
Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (WBD).
WBD said the block was most recently owned by the Cyprus-registered I.M. Arteks Holdings Limited. Prior to March
2003, the block belonged to Alexander Timokhins, a private investor, who sold it on to Britain's Burlington
Investments Limited. The British company then sold the stock to I.M. Arteks Holdings. The block, originally 6.28%,
decreased to 5.29% while it changed hands.
WBD, set up in 1992, was the first Russian food company to get a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company
placed a Eurobond issue of $150 million in the spring of last year.
Wimm-Bill-Dann's charter capital is 800 million rubles, and 44 million common shares with par value of 20 rubles
are in circulation. The company has 24 production enterprises in 20 cities around Russia and the Commonwealth of
Independent States, as well as trading branches in 26 cities.
The company produced 1.485 million tonnes of dairy, juice and mineral water product in 2003. WBD increased dairy
product sales 12.2% year-on-year to 286,100 tonnes in the first quarter of this year (yogurt product sales by 15%), but
juice sales were down 12% to 103,800 tonnes. First-quarter mineral water sales came to 1,400 tonnes.
[Interfax] |
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