The British investment fund Salford is expected to conclude its due diligence at dairy Ljubljanske mlekarne on Friday. This means that negotiations on the takeover of Slovenia's leading dairy could begin in about two weeks, a Salford representative said.
"Within a fews day after the due diligence, Salford will receive a report and after that it will have three days for additional questions," explained Gorazd Cuk of the company Zenos, which represents Salford.
Salford is the only bidder for a 54% stake in Ljubljanske mlekarne offered for sale by financial firm NFD Holding along with asset management firms Zvon Ena Holding and Zvon Ena ID, food company Jata Emona and Mlekodel, which manages the shares held by farmers and cooperatives.
Salford is offering SIT 3,189 (EUR 13.3) per share or a total of SIT 7.55bn (EUR 31.5m), which is also the lowest price that the sellers listed in the offer.
Ever since launching the bid at the beginning of October, Salford has been assuring owners of Ljubljanske mlekarne that they were interested exclusively in the milk of Slovenian suppliers.
Salford founder Eugene Jaffe is claiming that he has no reason to close down Ljubljanske mlekarne after the acquisition. "I am not Danone, Laura or Dukat. Only a rival company could be interested in closing Ljubljanske mlekarne," Jaffe said for Thursday's daily Dnevnik.
Jaffe also explained that financial investors like Salfor only closed a company in case of a complete disaster and bankruptcy. "I will do everything in my power to prevent this, believe me."
According to him, Salford will manage Ljubljanske mlekarne through the Danube Foods Group, which is registered in the Netherlands and covers Salford's investments in the Balkans.
If Salford decides to sell Mlekarne after a few years, it will probably offer its shares for listing on the London Stock Exchange, Jaffe added.
He also explained that the owners of Salford are foremost individuals, more than 20 of them, and that the fund has assets of more than US$ 700m.
"The money involved is American, Russian, German and Georgian. More than half of it comes from the East, especially from the former Soviet Union. Serbian money is not involved, not a dollar of it," Jaffe also stressed out.
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