Südzucker subsidiary AGRANA plans strategic partnership with the shareholders of Serbian company Sunoko via majority participation

The Austrian AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG, a round 50 percent Südzucker participation, intends a strategic partnership with the shareholders of Serbian company Sunoko d.o.o. and has therefore signed a term sheet with regard to achieving agreement about majority participation. The next step consists of due diligence processes. The conclusion of the contract is subject to the approval of the supervisory board of AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG and the supervisory board of Südzucker AG. This partnership is also subject to subsequent approval by the anti-trust authorities.

About Sunoko

Sunoko d.o.o. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Agri Europe Cyprus. With three sites in Kovacica, Vrbas and Pecinci, all in the region of Vojvodina, Sunoko is the largest sugar beet purchaser in Serbia and in the Balkan region. The company annually processes around two million tonnes of sugar beet, grown on more than 40,000 hectares of land, to produce approximately 300,000 tonnes of sugar. Serbia has duty-free access to the EU market for a quota of 180,000 tonnes of sugar.

About the Südzucker Group

Südzucker, with its sugar, special products, CropEnergies and fruit segments, is one of the leading companies in the food industry. In the traditional sugar business, the group is the world market leader, with 29 sugar factories and two refineries, extending from France in the west via Belgium, Germany and Austria, through to Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bosnia and Moldova in the east. The special products segment, consisting of the functional ingredients for food and animal feed (BENEO), chilled/frozen products (Freiberger), portion packs (PortionPack Europe) and starch divisions, is an important growth driver. The CropEnergies segment covers the bioethanol activities in Germany, Belgium, France and the UK. In the fruit segment, the group operates internationally, is the world market leader for fruit preparations and is a leading supplier of fruit juice concentrates in Europe.

In 2015/16, the group employed about 16,500 persons and generated revenues of EUR 6.4 billion.

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