Shares of OAO Lebedyansky jumped the most in more than a year after the Kommersant daily said PepsiCo Inc agreed to take control of Russia's biggest juice maker for at least US$1.5 billion.
PepsiCo may announce the purchase of a 76 percent stake within two months, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified Russian banker working on the transaction and an unspecified Lebedyansky executive. Deutsche Bank AG is advising PepsiCo on the purchase, according to Kommersant.
Lebedyansky, which also makes baby-food products, has 32 percent of the Russian juice market, the Moscow-based company said on May 30. Russian lawmaker Nikolai Bortsov owns 30 percent of the company and his son Yuriy Bortsov, Lebedyansky's board chairman, holds another 25 percent, according to spokesman Alexander Kostikov. A quarter of the shares are publicly traded.
Kostikov declined to comment on the Kommersant report. Alexander Shalnev, a spokesman for PepsiCo in Russia, could not be reached when called at his office in Moscow. Marina Malakhova, a spokeswoman at Deutsche Bank's Russian unit, wouldn't comment.
The shares surged 11 percent to 2,700.81 rubles on the Micex Stock Exchange, the biggest intraday gain since at least July last year. The shares were up 119.46 rubles (US$4.69), or 4.9 percent, to 2,552 rubles at 1:06pm in Moscow, heading for a record close. The stock has risen by a fifth this year, valuing the company at 52.3 billion rubles.
PepsiCo, the maker of Fritos chips and Mountain Dew soda, may spend as much as US$2 billion this year to add snacks or drinks to raise earnings and gain market share abroad, chief executive officer Indra Nooyi said last month. Russia's US$146 billion food retailing industry, Europe's fastest growing, may grow 24 percent this year, according to Renaissance Capital investment bank.
"PepsiCo is producing juices globally, but not in Russia," where it has 14 percent of the water market, said Anna Kochkina, an analyst at Aton Capital brokerage in Moscow with a "buy" recommendation.
Lebedyansky may also benefit from the sale as "it's always positive when a strategic investor, especially such as PepsiCo, buys a stake in the company," she added.
Last year's creation of X5 Retail Group NV through the US$2.1 billion merger of discount grocer Pyaterochka with the more upscale Perekriostok chain, controlled by billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, was the biggest transaction in the Russian retail industry.
BP Plc's US$7.7 billion investment in 2003 to create Russian oil venture TNK-BP was the largest private foreign investment in a Russian company.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI