UK & Bosnia: Investment fund Altima Partners to buy 53.8% stake in Bosnia

UK-based investment fund Altima Partners on December 28 bought a 53.81 percent stake in Bosnia's second-biggest brewer, Banjalucka Pivara, from the Bosnian Serb Republic for 23 million Bosnian marka, according to a release of Reuters. Altima Partners, which manages some $1.5 billion in assets, pledged to continue brewing beer in the next three years and invest 7.8 million marka in that period. It will also keep all of Banjalucka Pivara's 376 workers.

"We want Banjalucka Pivara to become a leading brewer in this part of Europe. We hope that we will be able to turn it into a very successful company," Jonathan Derry-Evans of Altima Partners said after signing the deal.

The brewery had sales of 15.8 million marka in the first half of this year and posted a loss of 455,000 marka. Its capital was 53.4 million marka with 94 million marka in assets while its debt stood at some 40 million marka.It was Bosnia's leading brewer by sales until 2004 when cut-price imported beer from Serbia halved their sales to around 300,000 hectolitres per year.

It is the only brewery in the Bosnian Serb Republic with four others based in the Muslim-Croat federation.

Sarajevska Pivara, which bid for Banjalucka but did not fulfil tender conditions, is the market leader with some 350,000 hectolitres of beer sold both last year and this year. Local brewers produce some 45 percent of the 1.8 million hectolitres of beer sold in Bosnia.This was the third attempt to sell Banjalucka Pivara since 2001.

Bosnian Serb Republic Privatisation Directorate head Vladimir Mackic said its sale was the biggest privatisation transaction in the Serb Republic to date. "We now hope for an increase in production, sales and profit and solving of the company's debt," Mackic stated.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .