BULGARIA – Advent sips EUR 40m Devin

Kim
19 November 2009

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

Advent International's Central & Eastern European team has completed the acquisition of a 79% stake in Bulgarian bottled water business Devin AD. The company is listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the shares were acquired from Austria's Soravia Group and individual shareholders for a price of BGN 3.06 per share, corresponding to an enterprise value for the entire business of EUR 40m. The price was at the bottom of the BGN 3.06-3.17 range stipulated in the Share Purchase Agreement earlier this year.

Advent is launching a bid to acquire the remaining shares in the business.

This will mark Devin's second foray with private equity, having been owned by Wing Equity and Accession Mezzanine Capital between 2006 and its subsequent listing.

Devin was founded in 1992 and has since grown to become Bulgaria's number one water bottler. It has distribution agreements with Red Bull and Granini in Bulgaria. Devin's consolidated revenues increased 22% in the first half of the year compared to the same period of last year, exceeding BGN 30m.

Advent's team on the Devin transaction includes Chris Mruck, Albena Vassileva, Michal Aron, Milan Kulich and Burcu Gobuluk. Tzvetan Lazhanski is CEO of Devin. Advent's operating partner Matthew Litobarski, former president of Cadbury Schweppes Europe, will join Devin's board as non-executive chairman. Mruck and Vassileva will both join the board as non-executive directors.

Advent's advisers on the transaction include A.T. Kearney (commercial and operational), Corporate Finance Partners (corporate finance), CMS Cameron McKenna (legal), PricewaterhouseCoopers (financial & tax) and Elana (brokerage). The Soravia Group was advised by Borislav Boyanov & Co (legal).