“Lactalis signed a contract with the selling shareholders who altogether own 70.3% of Albalact’s share capital (…) with the purpose of acquiring all shares held by the selling shareholders,” Albalact said in a statement.
The selling shareholders Albalact refers to include Raul Ciurtin, Lorena Beatrice Ciurtin, Crisware Holdings Limited, Croniar Holdings Limited and RC2 (Cyprus) Limited.
These shareholders undertook to sell their shares, which total a 70.3% stake, within a takeover offer to be initiated by Lactalis in order to acquire 100% of Albalact.
Following Albalact’s announcement, the company’s shares rose 14.8% on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, to RON0.38/share.
Albalact also said in its statement that the agreement between its shareholders and Lactalis is pending clearance from Romania’s Competition Council.
The price per share will be set by deducting the adjusted net debt from the amount of RON407.3 million.
“The final price per share within the public takeover offer will be calculated only after fulfilling all precedent conditions, a little before the submission of papers for the takeover offer. The initiation of the takeover offer and the price within the takeover offer are pending clearance from Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority.
Based on an adjusted net debt of RON118.2 million on September 30, 2015, the calculation formula indicates a price per share of RON0.4543. The exemplifying price of RON0.4543 includes a bonus of approximately 37% at the closing price on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on January 27, 2016,” the company also said.
Albalact is the largest Romanian-held company in the local dairy industry. Founded in 1971, Albalact became a joint stock company in 1990 and was privatized in 1999. Currently, Raul Ciurtin and his wife own 41% of Albalact shares, through two Cyprus-registered companies.
Albalact owns a 99.01% stake in Raraul Campulung Moldovenesc and 100% in logistics firm Albalact Logistic SRL, having over 1,000 employees in all three entities.
French Lactalis is the world’s largest dairy products group, holding brands such as President and Parmalat. The group has 75,000 employees and over 200 factories, in 43 countries, reporting a turnover of EUR17 billion in 2015. In Romania, the group bought the LaDorna brand in 2008, from businessman Jean Valvis.