Armenian Mogul Acquires Bulgaria's Water Bottler Gorna Banya

Business | October 29, 2009, Thursday // 13:32
Bulgaria: Armenian Mogul Acquires Bulgaria's Water Bottler Gorna Banya Roughly EUR 20 M of Gorna Banya sale price will be used for covering the company's debts. File photo

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.

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Tags: Devin, Gorna Banya

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