Lotte Confectionery of South Korea buys the rest of the shares in Almaty-based Rakhat confectionary

Lotte Confectionery of South Korea has bought the rest of shares in the Almaty-based Rakhat confectionary, Erlen Badykhan, a senior analyst with the Agency for Returns of Investments, said in an interview for Tengrinews. Earlier the country’s media reported that Lotte Confectionery had been intending to purchase the rest 23.75% of common shares in Rakhat offered at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange December 11, 2013. December 27, 2013 the Company obtained all the permits to complete the purchase of the 76.25% in Rakhat. Through a series of transactions from December 23, 2013 to January 15, 2014 Lotte Confectionery bought all the 855 133 common shares earlier held by minority shareholders. The initial share price was about 2000 tenge; however, after the controlling stake was purchased by Lotte Confectionery, the share price has increased nearly three-fold. The expert doesn’t rule out that Lotte bought all the shares with a possible delisting in mind. “This move may mean that Lotte Confectionery has long-term plans with regards to Rakhat and has no intention to sell the assets in the nearest future”. According to Anton Soroko, an analyst with FINAM Investments Company, the purchase of the Kazakhstan-based assets is the first step for Lotte Confectionery towards expansion into the markets of Russia, China and India. Mr. Soroko also believes Lotte Confectionery is likely to resort to delisting. "LOTTE Confectionery, a leading confectionary of South Korea, and Rakhat, a leading confectionary in Kazakhstan, are glad to announce that in line with the earlier announcement as of July 2, 2013, LOTTE Confectionery has finalized the purchase of 76% in Rakhat”, Rakhat’s statement read late November 2013. At that time LOTTE Confectionery was planning to make a bid to buy out the rest of the shares held by minority shareholders.