The group is offering RON0.5252 per Albalact share, 38% higher than the share price on January 28, when the takeover intention was announced on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Lactalis will pay RON342 million to get all of Albalact, which closed at RON0.4940 on Wednesday.
Albalact had almost RON146 million debts at the end of 2015 and since Lactalis undertook to pay the debts, the enterprise value of the Romanian dairy producer is about RON500 million.
Lactalis is offering a higher price for Albalact, which it plans to delist. The French group announced at the end of January it had signed an agreement with Albalact’s majority owners – the Ciurtin family and private equity firm RC2, which had 70.3% in the dairy producer together. It will soon start talks with minority shareholders to delist Albalact from the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Local entrepreneur Raul Ciurtin, one of the most famous Romanian businessmen, and his wife held 41% in Albalact directly and indirectly. They should get RON140 million in this deal. The two built the biggest entrepreneurial dairy business over more than a decade, which posted RON450 million revenue in 2015, taking the top spot on the market from French-held Danone.
This deal is Lactalis’ second in Romania, after having bought the LaDorna brand from Jean Valvis in 2008, in a deal put at EUR70 million to EUR90 million at the time. The Albalact takeover took Lactalis’ market share to 14%, according to ZF estimates.
Back in 2008, LaDorna posted EUR41 million sales, while Albalact’s sales stood at more than EUR50 million.
The announcement about the price Lactalis is offering for Albalact comes less than one month after the Competition Council approved the deal. (EUR1=RON4.4687)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)