Bommidala Selected for Buying Stake in Greek Tobacco Co

Source from:  PTI 12/02/2011

Tobacco products maker Bommidala Enterprises has been selected by Agricultural Bank of Greece (ATE) as preferred candidate for further negotiations to acquire 50.4 per cent stake in Sekap SA. In the context of the public tender procedure for the sale of ATE bank''s participation in SEKAP S.A. and after the evaluation of the submitted binding offers, ATEbank announced that Bommidala Enterprises has qualified as the "First Preferred Candidate", the Greek lender said in a regulatory filing to Athens'' stock exchange. Sekap, S.A. is a Greek cooperative cigarette manufacturing company. The "First Preferred Candidate" will have the opportunity to conduct additional due diligence and proceed to negotiations with ATEbank, it said. As soon as the negotiations gets concluded and in the case that the transaction is complete, ATEbank will notify the investors, it added. Earlier on November 16, ATEbank had announced that in the context of the tender process regarding the sale of its participation in SEKAP S.A. (50,36 per cent), two binding offers were submitted by Bommidala Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Ilias D. Papadopoulos S.A.. Bommidala, known as BBM, has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a tobacco trading company to becoming a conglomerate with global presence in diversified fields. BBM is one of India's largest producers of tobacco products and by- products. Today, the group is India's leading cigarette exporters with an annual production capacity of over 6 billion sticks. Enditem