Herculane Water Acquired by Carpatina with Mezzanine Capital from AMC II

In a bid to diversify its product portfolio, Carpatina acquired mineral water producer Herculane Water. Lipoman, the majority stakeholder in Carpatina, received EUR 7 million mezzanine capital from Mezzanine Management Central Europe’s Accession Mezzanine Capital II Fund.

Carpatina expects to double Herculane Water’s sales after the bottled water is rebranded “Carpatina Plata.”

Herculane Water
Herculane Water is one of the largest distributors of mineral water in Romania. However, despite its continued increase, consumption levels in the country is far below that of the rest of Europe. Herculane Water bottles its still mineral water from the Herculane spring in Caras-Severin.

Carpatina (www.carpatina.ro)
Carpatina controls 7 percent of the Romanian mineral water market. Lipoman acquired a majority stake in the company in February 2006. The company’s sales in the last year have seen a 20 percent increase.

Mezzanine Management Finanz- und Unternehmensberatungs GmbH (www.mezzmanagement.com)
Providing mezzanine capital to established corporations, Mezzanine Management is a major financial and strategic investors in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2007, the company began raising funds for its second mezzanine fund, Accession Mezzanine Capital II (AMC II) Focusing on new European Union members, the fund invests in transactions of established companies. AMC II has also moved into investment opportunities in Russia and Ukraine. The final closing of AMC II took place on March 2008 with EUR 261 million.

The Company typically invests between € 5 – € 15 million in deals with transaction values in the range of € 30 – € 200 million.