Sunoko gets permit to acquire Star Secer – Miodrag Kostic owns over 70% of Serbian market

(Miodrag Kostic) The Commission for Protection of Competition has conditionally approved the acquisition of Star Secer, which used to own Sugar Factory Senta, by Sunoko. This has made Midorag Kostic the owner of another sugar factory in Serbia, Blic learns.

Sunoko submitted the request for the summary approval of this concentration in late March 2016. However, the Commission decided, due to the fact that Sunoko already owned half of the total sugar production and processing capacities in Serbia, to initiate the inspection procedure.

Through this transaction, Sunoko will simultaneously acquire ownership of the sugar factory TE-TO in Senta, a subsidiary of Star Secer, and so increase its share in the sugar market in Serbia.

Until now, Kostic owned around a half of the sugar market, and by buying 20% of shares of the Senta sugar factory, he became owner of over 70%, since TE-TO takes up about a fifth of the local market.

The sugar factory in Senta was going to be sold for a long time, but, considering its losses in the past two years, there wasn't much interest in the purchase. It has recently reported that it incurred losses of RSD 286 million in 2015 due to low prices of sugar relative to great losses of RSD 926 million incurred in 2014.

The only two factories Kostic now doesn't own are the Hellenic Sugar factories Sajkaska in Zabalj and Crvenka. He intended to buy them both a few years ago, but the Commission for Protection of Competition first declined to give its approval and then allowed the sale to take place, which didn't happen in the end because the Greek side was no longer interested. The Hellenic Sugar factories in Serbia have also had problems for several years now.

Sunoko owns three factories, those in Vrbas, Kavacica and Pecinci. Hellenic Sugar owns two, one of which is not operational, and Italy's Sfir used to own one – TE-TO in Senta – which now belongs to Sunoko.

Sunoko d.o.o. Novi Sad

Star šećer Senta

Komisija za zaštitu konkurencije Srbije

SFIR-Italija

Fabrika Šećera TE-TO Senta

Sugar Factory Senta

Miodrag Kostic

sugar production in Serbia

TE TO sugar factory Senta

Hellenic Sugar

sugar factory Sajkaska in Zabalj

Crvenka sugar factory

Vrbas sugar factory

Kovacica sugar factory

Pecinci sugar factory

Sfir Italy