Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods Completes Bond Placement
Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods, the largest manufacturer of dairy products and a leading producer of juices and beverages in Russia and the CIS, has completed the placement of two bond issues on the Moscow Interbank Stock Exchange, raising a total of10b rubles ($320m at the exchange rate on July1st, 2010).
Tony Maher, chief executive of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods.
“Such strong demand for our bonds from foreign and domestic investors allowed us to increase the size of the placement from 5 to 10 billion rubles,” says Tony Maher, chief executive of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods. “This is a striking endorsement by the investment community of our sound fundamentals, business model and strong growth prospects. The issuance of ruble bonds provides us with additional capital for future growth and further optimizes our debt portfolio.”
The two bond issues, with a total nominal value of10b rubles, have a maturity of three years, with coupons paid every six months.
Founded in 1992, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods operates 37 manufacturing facilities in Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia with over 16,000 employees. In 2005, Wimm-Bill-Dann became the first Russian dairy producer to receive approval from the European Commission to export its products into the European Union.
