March 18 (SeeNews) - Germany-based ceramic products manufacturer Villeroy & Boch is still in talks for acquisition of Belgium-based Ideal Standard International, the parent company of Bulgarian bathroom sanitary ware producer Ideal Standart-Vidima, despite the coronavirus crisis, German media reported.
"We are still in talks with Ideal Standard," German news agency DPA quoted a spokesperson for Villeroy & Boch as saying on Tuesday.
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The postponement of the shareholders' meeting of Villeroy & Boch scheduled for March 27 due to the coronavirus outbreak will have no influence on a decision for the purchase of Ideal Standard, the spokesperson said.
In February, the CEO of Villeroy & Boch, Frank Goering, said that the company would make a decision for the purchase of Ideal Standard before its shareholders' meeting in March.
The shareholders' meeting is not the decision-making body that should approve the deal, the spokesperson noted.
Ideal Standard International has invested over 300 million levs ($169.8million/153.4 million euro) in Ideal Standard-Vidima since 1992. The group has created over 3,200 jobs in Bulgaria, Torsten Turling, CEO of Ideal Standard International, said in November of last year at the official opening ceremony of Ideal Standart-Vidima's modernised plant in Sevlievo, central Bulgaria.
The Ideal Standard group has representative offices in Romania and Serbia. The group also operates in Croatia, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Slovenia.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)