Agranta Group interested in Danone's Russian assets

MOSCOW. May 3 (Interfax) - The Russian assets of French dairy giant Danone, which is planning to leave Russia, are of interest to Sergei Bachin's Agranta Group.

"We are not ruling out the purchase of Danone's Russian assets; we are interested in this," the group's press service told Interfax, noting that the company's strong brands are more important for the group than its factories.

"The main value of the assets of any business is not in production, but strong brands. For us, it is not so much Danone's plants that are important, especially since there is now an excess of processing capacity in Russia, but rather the preservation of the brands produced by the French holding and the continued development of dairy production in Russia," the company's press service said.

In February, Kommersant identified several large Russian food producers interested in the company's Russian business, including Rusagro , Cherkizovo Group , Chernogolovka Group, Ekoniva Group, Rumelko, Tkachev Agrocomplex and AFK Sistema which owns the Steppe agricultural holding. Rothschild & Co. was appointed consultant to the deal.

Danone announced plans to transfer control of its dairy products business in Russia in October of last year. There are no plans to transfer control over the production of baby food, where it owns the Istra-Nutritsia, Nutrilon, Malyutka and Malysh brands and production. According to sources cited by Kommersant, the deal includes a buyback option, where investors were offered from 75%. In addition, Danone wants to keep a seat on the board of directors of the Russian company after the transaction.

As reported in the statements of Danone Russia's dairy products division, net profit in 2022 decreased to 5.57 billion rubles from 8.85 billion rubles in 2021. Revenue increased to 92.9 billion rubles from 85.1 billion rubles in 2021, up 9.1%. The net profit of Danone Trade, a wholesaler, fell to 612.7 million rubles from 1.4 billion rubles in 2021. The company's revenue last year totaled 112.7 billion rubles against 109.9 billion rubles the year before.

The Danone group in Russia includes 16 production facilities for the manufacture of dairy products and baby food. The company previously estimated write-offs in connection with the withdrawal from the Russian dairy market at up to 1 billion euros.

Agranta Group of Companies owns the AgriVolga holding in the Yaroslavl region, which produces organic meat and dairy products under the brands Ugleche Pole, Iz Uglicha and Uglich sausages. In April of this year, the production of organic cheeses began at the Uglich Cheese-Dairy Plant, which is part of the business.

Agranta Group of Companies is a diversified holding established in 2008 to implement projects in the fields of agriculture, the production of organic food, and the processing of agricultural products, as well as the integrated development of territories. As reported on its website, during this time the total investment in projects has reached 117 billion rubles in total.