Emporiki Venture sold Altan

Today the Altan pasta holding (Granmulino brand) will announce a change in ownership. The Greek fund Emporiki Venture Capital SA sold 19.8% of Altana to the family of the main owner Valery Pokornyak. The fund held this stake for more than ten years and earned almost nothing on exit.

“The initiator of the transaction was the fund itself, its discussion continued for about the last three years. The question was: either we will buy out the fund’s share, or they will buy out our share,” Valery Pokornyak, general director and main owner of Altan, told Kommersant. He promised to disclose the exact ownership structure of Altan today, but clarified that he and his family would consolidate 80.2% after the transaction.

Emporiki Venture Capital SA (EVC) and its owner, the French group Credit Agricole, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The Altan holding was founded in 1988 on the basis of a research and production company of the same name. It includes three enterprises in the Altai Territory - Pospelikha Pasta Factory LLC, Pospelikhinsky Bread Products Plant OJSC and Altan Trading House LLC. Produces pasta under the Granmulino brand. Sales in 2010 - 530.6 million rubles.

According to Euromonitor, last year Altan occupied 3%, or seventh place, in the pasta market in monetary terms, the entire market was valued at 46.4 billion rubles. (retail sales). By 2015, the market growth is possible by approximately 1.5 times. Pasta products are almost not subject to inflation: according to Rosstat, the average cost of pasta made from premium flour in September 2011 was 46.4 rubles. for 1 kg versus 43.2 rubles. a year earlier.

The Commercial Capital fund (the former name of EVC before its sale to Emporiki Bank in 2004) entered Altana's capital in 1999. Then the fund paid about $3 million for a 19.8 percent stake. Director of Prosperity Capital Management Alexey Krivoshapko does not remember cases where an investment fund has been in business for so long. “The average period for such investments is usually five years,” he says.

Mr. Pokornyak refused to name the current cost of the EVC package. The owner of the 1st Pasta Company (Extra M brand), Andrey Kovalev, believes that due to the presence of its own mill and elevator, Altana’s EBITDA can be approximately 10% of revenue, that is, about 53 million rubles. “The entire company can be valued at 12 EBITDA, or about 636 million rubles,” he calculated. Based on this, the cost of the fund’s share upon sale could reach 126 million rubles, or approximately $4 million. Mr. Krivoshapko believes that the price was half that.

“From the point of view of the financial situation, now is not the most favorable time for the sale of any assets. For EVC, the transaction may be forced, especially given the economic problems in Greece,” says VTB Capital analyst Ivan Kushch. “It is unlikely that the fund had any other contenders for purchasing a stake in Altan, other than the main owner of the company,” adds Mr. Kovalev.

Oleg Trutnev

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