ARMENIAN MOGUL ACQUIRES BULGARIA’S WATER BOTTLER GORNA BANYA

Novinite
Oct 29 2009
Bulgaria

Armenian major businessman Gagik Tsarukyan have bought Bulgarian water
bottling company Gorna Banya in a EUR 25 M deal, which was sealed at
the end of last week, local reports say.

This is the first sale deal to be completed in the Bulgarian water
bottling sector this year.

About EUR 20 M of the sale price will be used for covering the
company’s debts, one of the former owners Evgeni Goranov told Dnevnik
daily.

The company owes EUR 12 M in long-term banking loans and another EUR
4 M in short-term funding.

It should pay a separate some EUR 3.5 M to a UK investment fund.

Gagik Tsarukian, arguably Armenia’s wealthiest man, owns more than
40 medium and large companies, making up a business empire, which
has seen an incredible expansion in recent years.

A former arm-wrestler, Tsarukian started out as a minority shareholder
in one of Armenia’s two largest breweries in the late 1990s.

Tsarukian has been a member of Armenian parliament since 2003, while
a year later he established the "Flourishing Armenia" party. Chairman
of Armenia’s National Olympic Committee.

The news of Gorna Banya’s sale comes a month after one of its nearest
rivals, Devin, majority owned by Austria’s Soravia Group, signed an
agreement for the sale of a 75% stake to global private equity fund
Advent International.

The deal price is said to be around EUR 21 M to 22 M. Its final value
will be fixed between the signing of the contract and its conclusion.