POLAND: Enterprise to merge juice companies

The US investment fund, Enterprise Investors, has unveiled plans to merge the two Polish juice producers, Agros Fortuna and Sonda, by the end of the second quarter of 2003.

The fund has invested some $34m (€32m) in buying a 90% stake in Agros Fortuna, which owns the Fortuna, Karotka and Tarczyn brands, and a 23% share in Sonda which produces the Garden and Donald labels.

Enterprise has said that it intends to remain a strategic investor in the merged company for the next three to seven years and has also suggested a public offering is a possibility.

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