• The French group Tereos announced on Wednesday, 01.02.2023, that the Luduș sugar factory was sold to two investors from Romania.
The French group Tereos initially intended to close the Ludus sugar factory. Production at the sugar factory in Luduș had been stopped, and the unit was to be closed and demolished, after an agreement with Ministry of Agriculture for the takeover of the factory has not been completed.
This motivated several Transylvanian sugar beet growers to start negotiations with the French company Tereos to take over the majority stake. From the statements of both parties, it seemed that an agreement had been reached, especially since financial guarantees had also been presented.
On the day they were supposed to sign the contract, the farmers say that the representatives of the Tereos group informed them that the factory in Luduș has already been sold to someone else.
Photo source: Agrointel
Other Romanian investors
The representative of sugar beet growers from Transylvania, Teodor Aflat, quoted by Agrointel declare: "We were supposed to be in Bucharest to sign the contract and I received a call from the factory manager who told me that it was sold to someone else. They didn't give me details of who, how or even why. I asked what the grievances were, if we could resume the negotiations where they left off and they blamed the lawyers, I didn't get much explanation.
We are also shocked because we made breakthroughs in the bank, loans, the beet growers relied on us. There were no disputes, just a few things related to documents, for example we needed a paper requested by the lawyers for the file that the factory is functional. There were still some minor details regarding the confidentiality of the negotiations, but they were not major problems. I don't know what we will do now, the news came like a thunderbolt, we have been fighting for almost a year."
The Tereos Group announced on Wednesday, 01.02.2023, that it has sold the Luduș sugar factory to two independent Romanian investors in the field of agri-food and consumer food products, Mihaela Neagu and Mihail-Daniel Matache, and expects the transaction to be completed during next week.
"We are very happy to have signed with these two investors. This continuation of the business ensures jobs and keeps the sugar business in the Ludus basin. This sale allows us to stay true to our strategic plan for 2021", said Gérard Clay, Chairman of the Board of Tereos Group.
Best Acquisitions also owns the Bod Sugar Factory
Mihaela Neagu is the general manager of Best Acquisitions, a company that also bought the Bod Sugar Factory last year, in order to resume production. This assures the 150 permanent employees of the Luduș factory with job security.
“It is a brave project that we have undertaken with the aim of relaunching sugar production in the country this year. We will start negotiations with farmers in the coming days, as the sugar beet for the 2023 autumn campaign in the Ludus region is to be contracted soon. We want to assure the approximately 300 growers in the region that we are open to collaboration, and we also want to assure the more than 150 employees that they will keep their jobs." declares Mihaela Neagu.
investor Mihaela Neagu has been in the media's attention for many years, the companies in which he is the majority shareholder standing out for obtaining a large number of advantageous contracts with the Romanian state. At the same time, he is also the sole shareholder of Libro Events SRL, which holds public contracts with institutions such as: the Zoo Administration, the Administration of Schools, High Schools and Kindergartens Sector 4, the Center for Resources and Educational Assistance of the Municipality of Bucharest, the Reșița School Sports Club, the National Airport Company Bucharest SA, CJ Călărași, CJ Constanța, General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Teleorman.
Article written by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă
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