Penta Announces Merger of Poland’s Iglotex and Iglokrak

Making good on its public plans to consolidate the fractured frozen foods market in Poland, Penta Investments has announced a merger deal with Ipopema FIZ that will combine two of their respective holdings. The merger will bring together Penta’s Iglokrak and Ipopema’s Iglotex to create Poland’s largest frozen foods distributor.

The heavily fractured Polish market currently supports almost 400 operators, all with very small market shares. The two parent companies will co-own the new entity with equal 50% shares. They have agreed to list the new company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange within the next five years.

Iglotex
Iglotex is Poland’s largest regional distributor of frozen foods and ice cream with 19,000 retail POS partners and 30,000 freezers.

The company distributes branded products from many well known producers, as well as its own products. The company’s production facilities are divided into two divisions; one producing flour, potato products, pizza, and French toast, and the other producing frozen vegetables and fruit.

The company is based in Skórcz and has roughly 1,300 employees. 2009 revenues were reported at PLN 400 million.

Iglokrak
Regionalne Przedsiêbiorstwo Przemyslu Chlodniczego IGLOKRAK Sp. z o.o. is a Warsaw-based manufacturer and distributor of frozen food products in southern Poland.

The company’s main product line includes ice cream, vegetables, poultry, fish, pizza, pasta, and fruit drinks. Iglokrak maintains operations in Krakow, Bielsko-Biala, Wodzisław, Wroclaw, and Zakopane.

2009 turnover was near CZK 2.15 billion with EBITDA at CZK 234 million.

Penta Investments
Founded in 1994 as a securities trading company, Penta Investments provides private equity and real estate investment in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe.

Penta prefers investments in the engineering, entertainment, healthcare, metallurgy, telecom, transportation, retail, and utilities sectors, with an average life of 3 to 5 years. The firm invests via restructuring projects, buyouts, and buy-ins.
Penta manages an evergreen fund from the firm’s five exclusive investors, managing €2.7 billion in total assets among thirty portfolio companies.

On the real estate side, Penta is currently invested in 11 projects. Company headquarters are in Prague; additional offices can be found in Amsterdam, Bratislava, Limassol, and Warsaw.