Agrana Acquires 50% of SCO Studen’s Sugar Sales Operations in the West Balkan Region

22/05/08 AGRANA, a leading Central and Eastern European producer of sugar and starch, has acquired, subject to the approval of the competent mergers and acquisitions authorities, 50% of the shares in the sugar sales operations of the Studen Group | Vienna, which markets white sugar products in Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Agragold brand. Studen has long been an export partner of AGRANA and currently sells around 130,000 tonnes of sugar in the countries of the West Balkan region. Following the discontinuation of EU C sugar exports, supplies to the West Balkan region were ensured through a refinery joint venture in Brcko | Bosnia.

“The West Balkan region is an important sales market and an interesting growth area for AGRANA. The region is also not subject to any quotas imposed by the EU sugar market regime," comments AGRANA CEO Johann Marihart on the Group’s latest expansion move. “We plan to jointly continue increasing the market share of the AGRANA-Studen Group in the West Balkan region in the period up to 2010,” Marihart adds.
 
Studen specialises in trading white and raw sugar as well as oil seeds in South-Eastern Europe. Moreover, Studen also holds a 50% stake in the new Studen-AGRANA raw sugar refinery in Brcko | Bosnia Herzegovina which, with a production capacity of 150,000 tonnes of white sugar per year, is due to enter operation in the coming week. In March 2008, this Studen -AGRANA raw sugar refinery was awarded the title of Best Foreign Investment 2007, in the category Greenfield Investment, by the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency in Bosnia Herzegovina.