Fosun International has acquired a 20% stake in Prod.Center, the leading Russian B2B marketplace for agricultural products trading. Caderus Capital acted as the sole organizer and financial advisor for the transaction. Caderus Capital had also arranged the previous round of financing for the Russian company, during which Altair Group became a shareholder of the growing business.
Maksim Buzmakov, managing director of Prod.Center, said: “We are happy to have a major Chinese investment group as one of our shareholders, this opens up a whole range of great opportunities and will allow us to step up onto the international business arena, occupy the currently vacant global market niche and thus improve the overall efficiency for such a fundamentally important market. I am very grateful to Caderus Capital’s team for their professionalism and dedication to the success of the transaction. This was the second investment round where Caderus Capital acted as our financial advisor and we intend to continue our very successful and fruitful cooperation going forward.”
Andrei Akopian, managing partner of Caderus Capital, said: “This is the second completed M&A transaction of Fosun Group in Russia who are known to be a very cautious and professional investor. I am very happy that Caderus Capital’s extensive contact network among the Chinese investment circles has allowed us to find a perfect match for Prod.Center both in terms of a unique resonance between the Fosun’s business strategy and Prod.Center’s growth plans and also in terms of the rapidly developing economic, trading and investment relations between our two countries.”
About Fosun Group
Fosun Group is a leading Chinese investment firm actively investing overseas. Fosun International is listed in Hong Kong with a market capitalization of USD14.2bn as of 15 August. This is the second acquisition of the Fosun Group in Russia, following a USD103.9mln purchase of a historic landmark business-center Voentorg in Moscow.
About Prod.Center
Prod.Center is an online wholesale exchange for 7 types of agricultural products currently: pork, beef, chicken, fish, dairy products, grain, vegetables and fruit. The business was launched in February 2016 and currently counts 2700 companies among its clients. During the first 7 months of 2018, Prod.Center has conducted over 22,000 auctions and RUB37bn (equivalent to USD0.6bn) worth of goods have exchanged hands.
About Caderus Capital
Caderus Capital is a Russian-Chinese investment company offering investment banking and consulting services to companies and institutional as well as private investors in Russia and in China, specializing in both private equity and securities investment. Caderus Capital is involved in a number of cross-border M&A transactions and business development projects.
In January 2016, Caderus Capital was appointed official representative for China by the Moscow Exchange, and as such Caderus Capital has been working on the creation of an offshore RMB-denominated investment market in Russia, as well as on the development of cooperation with institutional investors, financial regulators and media in China.