Nitescu to put up for sale Ultex Tandarei

Businessman Vasile Nitescu, the owner of Ultex Tandarei, one of the leading vegetable oil producers on the domestic market, has decided to sell the business, a sale that will also include his biodiesel operations.
The potential sale of the company, which last year posted a 46.3 million-euro turnover and estimates a 64 million-euro turnover this year, is being brokered by the Financial Consulting and Investigations Company (CIF), held by Ionel Blanculescu, the former chairman of AVAB (Banking Assets Resolution Agency) – the current AVAS (State Assets Resolution Authority).
“At present, we are in advanced talks with two US-based companies, which have already started the due diligence analysis at Ultex,” stated Nitescu.
He said that before the official release of the international sales announcement, he received offers from several companies and investment funds in Austria, the UK, Greece, France, as well as from a few Romanian-owned companies.
Nitescu said that his decision to sell the business was due to both personal and professional reasons, as well as to the fact that his business was expanding into other fields, such as real estate, which do not require the same amount of work as Ultex, where around 350 people are employed.
“The final price of the transaction will be calculated based on the results of the due-diligence analysis. However, we also have to take into account the fact that this is Romania’s largest and only domestically-owned vegetable oil processing plant, and if Ultex were to start from scratch, it would make a net annual profit of around 8-9 million euros, being placed on an already established market,” added Nitescu .
Ultex, which last year accounted for 14% of the local vegetable oil market, focused on processing soybeans in the second half of 2006, as well as producing biodiesel. Through the Biodil brand, Ultex was the first domestic producer of vegetable oils to start making biodiesel in Romania.