ZAGREB (Croatia), July 21 (SeeNews) – France's Lactalis is interested in acquring Serbian dairy Imlek, Croatian media reported.
If Lactalis, which also owns Croatian top dairy firm Dukat, acquires Imlek, it will strengthen its leading position in the region, Zagreb-based news daily Poslovni Dnevnik (www.poslovni.hr) said on Wednesday, quoting unofficial sources.
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Lactalis has 13 production units in the region.
The market share of Imlek in Serbia is estimated 30-40%. It has operations in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, the daily said.
Imlek is owned by UK-based investment fund Salford Capital Partners through its Dutch-based Danube Foods.
In May, Serbian media quoted Salford's managing director in Serbia, Slobodan Petrovic, as saying that Salford plans to offer for sale its four Serbian companies next year.
In Serbia, Salford is also owner of water bottlerKnjaz Milos, dairy Mlekara Subotica [BEL:MLSU] and confectionery maker Bambi -Banat [BEL:BMBI].
Imlek [BEL:IMLK] is a component of the Serbian blue-chip index. In 2010 the company raised its net profit to 1.156 billion dinars ($15.6 million/11.0 million euro) from 868 million dinars in 2009, according to the Belgrade Stock Exchange data.
(1 euro = 104.8162 Serbian dinars)