Wimm-Bill-Dann on Danone-related deal

No agreement has been reached so far between Wimm-Bill-Dann and the Danone Group regarding the main terms of a possible sale of a controlling block of shares in Wimm-Bill-Dann to Danone. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods joint-stock company David Yakobashvili made this statement in his official speech commenting on the latest information concerning the possible deal between the two companies.

According to him "we are not sure either, whether these talks will continue or if any agreement will be reached or not, and if yes, what the deal will be. The terms of this deal may either affect public shareholders of Wimm-Bill-Dann, or they may not." At the same time, Yakobashvili reported that he was not going to make any additional comments regarding this issue, until he had to according to law.

The press service of Wimm-Bill-Dann told reporters that according to earlier reports, a number of the company's shareholders (Yakobashvili was among them) were at the stage of preliminary talks with Danone concerning a possible deal that might result in the latter buying a controlling block of shares or all shares of Wimm-Bill-Dann.

It is worth mentioning that the last time rumors of this kind appeared in the Financial Times newspaper on October 8, 2003, which was the third time already since February 2002, when Wimm-Bill-Dann had made an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Following the IPO, four percent in Wimm-Bill-Dann was purchased by Danone. Later, Danone's stake in the Russian company increased to 7.2 percent.

© &to=http://www.rbcnews.com' target=_blank>RBC

&to=http://www.wbd.com' target=_blank>Wimm-Bill-Dann