Bratislava, 2 April 2008 – Slovak financial group Arca Capital acquired 100-percent interest in the most important Czech company producing starch – Natura. Last month the transaction was approved by the Czech antimonopoly office (Office for the Protection of Competition – ÚOHS). Strategic objective of Arca Capital is to restructure the company, to make its control procedures more effective and to enter the foreign markets.
Acquisition of the company Natura was mediated by the consulting company TPA Horwath. Annual revenues of the company Natura are currently on the level of almost EUR 14 million.
The company Natura was established in 1991 and it owns the company Naturamyl, a.s. having its production capacities in Havlíčkův Brod, Bohdalov and Puklice. Natura deals with sale and distribution of powder food products, dried mashed potatoes, potato starches for food and other purposes. Besides production of starches and starch-based products, Natura imports, sells and distributes wide range of food additives used especially in meet-processing, diary and baking industry.
The aim of the financial group Arca Capital is to restructure the company Natura in terms of costs, finance and organisation. The objective is to divide the holding to a company dealing with production and distribution of additives and to the company that covering all the other current activities.
“Out objective is to secure sustainable growth in the Czech market,” says Milan Musil, project manger of Arca Capital about the activities under preparation. “At the same time we also plan to expand to foreign markets, such as Slovakia, Romania and Vietnam.”
Natura is the third company in the food-processing section of Arca Capital’s portfolio. Legal ownership of the company MARILA BALÍRNY was the crucial point for acquiring the company Natura. The activities of MARILA BALÍRNY are focused on roasting and packing coffee beans, baking and confectionery, packing food products and production of drinks. The best known drinks include Ondrášovka and Šaratica mineral waters. Arca Capital assumes close cooperation of both food-processing companies especially in the field of sale, storing and transport.
About Arca Capital Group
Arca Capital is private equity and real estate group of holding type having its branches in Slovakia, in the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Great Britain. In the future it plans to undertake new and capital intensive projects in the field of private equity and real estate in Slovakia, as well as in the Czech Republic, and especially in Ukraine, where the group has spread its operation lately. The group invests in enterprises from food-processing industry, energetics, civil engineering, telecommunications, information technologies and biotechnologies. The current activities in Slovakia focus especially on developer projects, such as design furniture shopping centre called LIGHTPARK and residential project HUBICE DVORY. At the beginning of the year the group entered the sector of geodesy and cartography by purchasing GEODÉZIA Bratislava, a.s. This year in January Arca Capital and its investment partners acquired a majority interest in the Ukrainian company CheZaRa that focuses especially on production of communication and security systems in cosmic and civil sectors. Huge residential project called Seven Springs and construction of logistic centres are currently under preparation in Ukraine. Arca Capital Group currently administers assets in the overall value of approximately EUR 125 billion.
Further information:
Monika Dobrovodská
Marketing & PR manager
Arca Capital
tel.: (+421) 2 5825 3514
GSM: (+421) 903 771 656
e-mail: dobrovodska@arcainvestments.sk
www.arcacapital.sk
