Zarea Bucharest, 15m-euro turnover in 2005

Polish company Ambra, a member of the German group Schloss Wachenheim, may initiate a public takeover offer for the Romanian alcoholic drinks producer Zarea Bucharest, after having acquired a 40.5% stake in the company early in the year.

“The next step for Ambra, according to legal regulations, will be to put out a mandatory takeover offer,” says Dumitru Tosa, Zarea vice-president and one of the shareholders of Karom Trading, the company which owns 35.2% in Zarea.

At the beginning of the year, in the wake of a 2.2 million RON (0.6 million euros) share capital increase, Ambra raised its stake in Zarea up to 40.5%, and Karom came to account for 35.2% of the company”s capital.

Other than Ambra and Karom, some 40 individual shareholders of Zarea also subscribed to the share capital increase.

Zarea ended last year with turnover standing at 57.3 million RON (15.6 million euros), up from 32 million RON (7.9 million euros) in 2004, almost 80% more in RON.

“Net profit stood at 5.5 million RON (1.5 million euros), not enough to cover losses cumulated by the end of December 2004, amounting to some 8 million RON,” said Tosa.

Last October, Ambra acquired 14.72% in Zarea Bucharest from Karom Trading, through a special transaction conducted on the RASDAQ market. Following this transaction, Ambra increased its stake in Zarea to over 24.1%, with Karom Trading retaining an over 22.4% stake.

In December, Ambra bought another 5.7% in Zarea from an individual investor.

“I think the increase in the stake owned by Ambra is still small in terms of Zarea”s shareholding structure.

This can be explained by the fact that the company is afraid to invest in Romania given that the business environment for alcohol manufacturers is not very favourable,” Tosa believes.