Austria's CID Adriatic Investments GmbH (CID) on Wednesday announced the purchase of an additional 38.8% stake in Bosnian tobacco company Fabrika Duhana Sarajevo (FDS) for 41.6 million marka ($22.1 million/21.3 million euro) via a successful buyout bid.
CID now owns 78.8% of FDS after it bought a 39.9% stake from the government of Bosnia's Federation for 42.7 million marka in September, the investment company said in a statement.
The funds for both transactions were provided to CID by British American Tobacco (BAT), the company noted. CID also said it will now launch negotiations with BAT which is interested in acquiring the tobacco part of the FDS’ business.
“The agreement between CID and British American Tobacco will be subject to a vote by the shareholders in FDS, a due diligence process to be conducted by British American Tobacco, and all regulations and regulatory approvals”, CID explained.
FDS holds a 66.5% stake in local lender Vakufska banka and owns minority stakes in Privredna and BOR banka, which recently merged. According to local media reports, CID will keep the non-tobacco assets of FDS while BAT would take over the rest.
Last year, BAT purchased tobacco company Tvornica Duhana Rovinj (TDR) in neighbouring Croatia for 505 million euro ($525.4 million).