Austrian coffee baron buys back Kandia at five times lower price

US-based Kraft group yesterday announced the sale of the Kandia business in Romania to investment fund Oryxa Capital, without providing details as to who was behind the fund or the value of the deal. Put up for sale by Cadbury, which had been acquired by Kraft, six months ago, Kandia had eight suitors, among which big names of the confectionery industry such as NestlŽ, †lker and Ritter Sport. The surprise winner was an investment fund unknown on the local market, behind which, however, is Austrian family Meinl.
"Oryxa Capital is a private equity fund that has the Meinl family in Austria as majority shareholder," confirmed Nicholas Hill, the financial consultant of the buyer in this deal.
The transaction, which sources on the market put at less than 20 million euros, thus marks the return to Romania of the Austrian giant Julius Meinl, after a three-year hiatus and at an estimated price five times lower than the one at which it had sold the Kandia business on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the summer of 2007 before the onset of the financial crisis.
Meinl family has built its 2bn-euro business on coffee trade since the times of the Habsburg Empire and in 1980 opened its own bank, Meinl Bank, the starting point for an entire financial group, which includes an investment arm. The family's reputation took a hit last year when Julius Meinl V was charged and detained in connection with a 100 million-euro fraud.