Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 July / Trend corr I.Khalilova/ "An appraisal company will be selected this week to appraise the assets of SAF and Garnet (a part of MilkPro) juice manufacturers, which were transferred to fruit corporation Azeri Fruit, Co. being currently established," Director of Export Promotion Department at AZPROMO Emil Aliyev said.
The appraisal and juridical company will be announced at the first meeting of the working group on establishment of Azeri Fruit, Co. to take place some day soon. One of world's four leading international consulting companies will be involved (Ernst& Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and KPMG).
According to Aliyev, technical issues regarding establishment of the fruit corporation will be solved within two months. List of Azeri Fruit, Co. shareholders may be expanded in that period, but SAF and Garnet will remain the key stockholders.
Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC) and Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) signed a trilateral MOI on 1 July with Azerbaijan's juice manufacturers SAF and MPro to establish a Fruit Corporation. According to the MOI, AIC will draw in extra funds from international fiscal institutions, including strategic and portfolio investors, for financing of the project.
AIC's shareholding in the Corporation will not exceed 25%, since investing company always is a minority shareholder.
AZPROMO will provide consultation services to establish administration, corporate system in the corporation.
Corporation will represent local juice manufacturers in the foreign markets, as well as help in producing the product that will meet the international standards under one brand.
Establishment of Fruit Corporation in Azerbaijan is intended to unify the efforts of juice and vegetable manufacturers.
There are 13 small-scale and big-scale fruit manufacturers in the country, with 40 homemade. Almost most canneries and dairy, as well as the meat enterprises produce juice.
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