Commission for Protection of Competition approved takeover of BIP by Swedish-Lithuanian consortium

Consortium of companies "United Nordic Beverages" from Sweden and "Alita" from Lithuania obtained the permit from the Commission for Protection of Competition to take over the majority share in Belgrade Beer Industry (BIP).

On July 24, 2007, that consortium signed the contract with the Privatization Agency on purchase of 51.9% of stocks of BIP, but it waited for the Commission for Protection of Competition to issue permit for payment of price of 21,4m EUR.

The Commission had one month to decide about the request of the buyers of BIP, and the decision about approval of that concentration of property was made at the end of the last week.

It is expected that Lithuanian-Swedish consortium will pay the price and officially take over BIP in the next ten days.

The new owner obliged to invest 5.1m EUR in that company.