Cherkizovo could become new Eurodon owner - sources
MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) - The Cherkizovo Group could become the new owner of Eurodon Group, one of Russia's leading producers of turkey and duck meat, based in Rostov Region, several sources familiar with preparations to sell the asset told Interfax.
"Cherkizovo has become actively involved in studying the distressed company," one of the source said, adding this would be logical seeing as Cherkizovo was carrying the Tambov Turkey project out with Italy's Grupo Corporativo Fuertes.
The source said bids might be accepted as early as March 14.
A source close to Cherkizovo said the group was interested in the Evrodon assets, as did another specialist familiar with discussions about the prospects for Eurodon's development.
Cherkizovo itself is not commenting on the information.
Asked by Interfax in January this year whether Cherkizovo was interested in Eurodon, the group's CEO, Sergei Mikhailov, said: "We are looking at various ways of developing and producing turkey, including mergers and acquisitions. We are in dialog with everybody, there are not that many operators on the market." Mikhailov said the market remained fragmented for now but "one way or another it will consolidate." "And we want to play a good part in these consolidation trends," he said.
VEB, which has received Eurodon assets as part of the restructuring of its liabilities to the state corporation, told Interfax that consultants were due before long to tally the results of their appraisal of Eurodon Group enterprises. VEB did not comment on talks to sell the company, nor did it deny there had been a number of bids that their specialists and financial consultants were working on.
Another source said the company might sell for 3 billion rubles but that was not enough for it to recover.
Other companies to have shown an interest in Eurodon include turkey producer Damate, N.I. Tkachev Agrocomplex, Pokrovsky Holding and some others. Damate said it would not comment on the situation with Eurodon.
VEB gave preliminary results of the appraisal of Eurodon enterprises at the beginning of March - their market value might be at least 10 billion rubles, a source close to the company told Interfax at the time.
Eurodon's press office said the company planned by the middle of March to complete an inventory and then obtain the final results of the appraisal. The group has been audited to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for 2018.