PETERSBURG - The food holding "Planeta Group" has established control over the St. Petersburg dairy plant "Petmol". As Vedomosti has learned, the holding bought large blocks of shares of the enterprise from the company "Petmol-Invest", controlled by the dairy plant's management, and from the Italian food giant Parmalat and now controls 89% of the shares of "Petmol".

JSC "Saint Petersburg Dairy Plant No. 1 "Petmol" is the largest producer of dairy products in the North-West region and one of the largest in Russia. The plant is designed to process 550 tons of milk per day, and processes about 400 tons per day. Turnover in 2002 was 1.9 billion rubles. According to the United Financial Group (UFG), "Petmol" owns 4% of the Russian dairy market.

The food company "Planeta Group", created by former managers of "Sibneft", is actively forming a dairy holding of national scale: in addition to shares of "Petmol", its dairy division "UniMilk" already controls eight enterprises of the dairy industry. Last year, the turnover of the dairy business of "Planeta" was about $200 million. On the dairy market of Russia "Planeta Group" ranks second after the company "Wimm-Bill-Dann".

"Planeta Group" became a co-owner of "Petmol" in September last year, having bought 26% of shares from Swedish shareholders - the Arla concern and the LRF farmers' association. Representatives of "Planeta" did not hide their intentions to gain full control over the enterprise.

In December 2002, at an extraordinary meeting of Petmol shareholders, three representatives of the Planeta Group joined the company's board of directors. At the same time, it was announced that the holding's representatives were negotiating with other shareholders - the Italian company Parmalat SpA, owner of 33% of Petmol shares, and OAO Petmol-Invest (30% of shares), controlled by the company's management.

As Vedomosti has learned, the first to agree to sell Petmol shares were the dairy plant managers - they parted with their stake at the end of last year. A source close to the management of Petmol-Invest reported that this company "has long been a nominal holder." Petmol's first deputy general director Sergei Polyakov admitted in an interview with Vedomosti on Friday that "significant changes" had occurred in the company's shareholder composition, but declined to comment further.

The Parmalat share package is also being transferred to Planeta. An informed employee of the Italian company, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the deal to sell Petmola shares to Planeta is already nearing completion. "Its completion is a matter of the coming days," the source said. Salvatore Lucisano, Parmalat SpA's regional director for Central and Eastern Europe, neither confirmed nor denied the sale of shares to Planeta.

The purchase of shares from Petmol-Invest and Parmalat was also confirmed by a high-ranking employee of the Planeta Group, who asked not to be named. "When implementing our goals, we always go all the way," stated a representative of Planeta. According to him, no drastic personnel changes are expected at the plant - the plant's general director Valentin Polyakov and the chairman of the board of directors, owner of the LenStroy holding Aleksandr Aladushkin will remain in their positions. "They are good people," says the Planeta manager.

Thus, Planeta managed to gain control over 89% of Petmol shares. According to OFG analyst Alexey Krivoshapko, a total of 63% of the plant's shares could have cost the buyer $22-25 million.

Analysts believe that control over the largest dairy plant in the Northwest will allow Planeta to strengthen its attack on the national dairy market. "This is a good production site plus a good range of brands and products that they can scale across Russia," says Alexey Krivoshapko. "But the potential market share depends on how seriously Planeta invests in marketing." "In my opinion, this is good news for both companies [Planeta and Petmola]. The conflict of interests between the main shareholders, which has prevented the company from fully developing over the past few years, has finally been resolved," says Andrey Ivanov, an analyst at the investment company Troika Dialog.

NEW DAIRY BRANDS: Last week, Dragan Vukasinovic, head of UniMilk, the dairy division of the Planeta Group, announced that the company had begun developing several brands for product lines to be manufactured by Planeta's dairy enterprises. UniMilk has announced a tender among major advertising agencies to develop positioning and advertising for dairy products. This year, UniMilk may spend about $2 million on developing a strategy and advertising. The recipes for the products to be sold under the new brands are being developed at Petmol.

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