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Hellenic Coke Buys Aquavision
Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. has made another major acquisition on the Russian market. Its purchase of OOO Aquavision from the Health Tech Corp. for ˆ191.5 million was announced yesterday. HTC made a 100-percent profit in two years from the deal. Acquavision owns a beverage plant in Istra, outside Moscow, with a capacity of 500 million liters per year. It is also the owner of the botaniQ brand name.
Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. is the largest Coca Cola bottler in Europe. It is the exclusive producer of Coca Cola beverages in 28 countries, including some CIS states. The Coca Cola Co. owns a 10-percent stake in it. Health Tech Corp. was founded by Dmitry Buryak in 2001. It owns Vision International People Group (a distributor of health products), the Svensioniu Vaistazoles herbal tea plant in Lithuania and the Forum Palace entertainment complex in Lithuania. Its assets are worth about $500 million.
HTC built the beverage plant in Istra in 2005 for $130 million. Company managing director Vaagn Manukyan explained that the decision to sell the plant was made two and a half months age. “We receive many offers to buy a share in that project, but the offer made by CCHBC suited us completely,” he said.
In 2005, CCHBC and the Coca Cola Co. acquired the third-largest Russian juice producer, St. Petersburg's Multon for $530 million. CCHBC public relations director Yana Guskova said that the company was interested in the Istra plant because it lacks production capacity. She said the new acquisition would allow the company to raise production in Russia by 15 percent and that the plant would be used to produce Coca Cola products. Furthermore, the plant's capacity will be increased to 750 million liters per year. The botaniQ brand name will be transferred to Multon.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 06, 2007
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