The wave of takeovers on the vegetal oil market has continued with the completion of a deal in which Expur Urziceni, held by a Swiss investor, has acquired the oil producer Ulcom Suceava.
The Ulcom deal is connected to the name of a local businessman, Nicolae Basoiu.
Industry sources say the deal is worth more than 10 million dollars (7.5 million euros). It also involves the acquisition of a grain silo.
Expur officials confirmed the completion of the transaction, but provided no further details.
"It is true that we took over 100% of Ulcom. We want to improve Ulcom's position on the market with reasonably priced products. At the same time, we want to revitalise Slobozia from an economic point of view," said Peter Tage, general manager of Expur Urziceni. He provided no details as to the value of the transaction.
Two months ago, Expur and Ulcom launched a new product, which has already reached the shelves of major supermarket chains. Until completion of this deal, Expur had a contract with Ulcom, whereby it was allowed to rent all the company's assets until all lawsuits involving Ulcom's assets were settled.
Expur posted a 38 million-euro turnover in 2003, while Ulcom made 20 million euros of losses for the same year and had total debts of 7 million euros.
Expur specialises in soybean processing, and is over 90% owned by the Swiss company Alimenta, a major player on the vegetal oil market. Expur exports 80% of its oil (95,000 tonnes) every year, while its total capacity is around 150,000 tonnes per year. The main beneficiaries of Expur's production are Agricola International, Avicola Slobozia, Avicola Bacau and swine farms.
Ulcom Slobozia is a standard factory, which has seen major investments. However, it has also been involved in a number of financial scandals that had negative consequences. Ulcom took out loans from now bankrupt Bancorex and, at one point, was even placed under receivership.
The Romanian edible oil market, which is estimated at more than 300 million dollars (225 million euros) per year, has witnessed some extraordinary activity in terms of acquisitions over the last couple of years.
The market leader is US Bunge Corp, which owns three factories: Unirea Iasi, Muntenia Bucharest and Interoil Oradea.
Estimates show Bunge accounts for 35% of the market, followed by Argus Constanta with 19%.
Ultex Tandarei, which was acquired from Topway Industries Craiova by entrepreneur Vasile Nitescu, accounts for more than 7% of the market. Topway Industries had a market share of around 10% until last year when it sold its two edible oil factories to US giant Cargill, one of the leading cereal traders in the world. Cargill bought Topway Industries Craiova's factories in Podari and Craiova for 30 million dollars (22 million euros). The other three shareholders in Topway Industries were supposed to receive 2-3 million dollars for the controlling interests, with the rest of the money in the deal used to pay off Topway Industries' commitments to banks.
stelian.negrea@zf.ro
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