October 8 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian battery manufacturer Monbat [BUL:5MB] said on Monday that it has decided against pursuing the acquisition of Tunisian peer L'Accumulateur Tunisien Assad (ASSAD) due to legal and environmental issues.
There is currently a legal case pending concerning the land on which ASSAD's production plant is built, Monbat said in a statement.
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Another reason is the inability of the new owner to retain control of ASSAD's subsidiary in Algeria, due to an enforcement procedure over a portion of the shares of that company.
The acquisition also represents a "non-justified environmental risk, which could not be forecast and respectively could not be managed in a reliable manner," Monbat said.
Monbat operates four plants for manufacturing and recycling of lead-acid batteries, diodes and light-emitting diode luminaires.
L'Accumulateur Tunisien Assad specialises in designing, manufacturing, distributing and recycling of lead storage batteries. The company has two factories in Tunisia employing more than 750 people.