Cristescus sell soda factory

Brothers Marius and Emil Cristescu, who control the Bega Group, on Tuesday sold the controlling interests in the soda ash factory Bega Upsom Ocna Mures, Alba County, as part of their strategy to liquidate all their chemical industry assets. The Bega Group also owns the Uzinele Sodice Govora (Govora Soda Plant), whose sale they are currently negotiating. The Cristescu brothers want to use the money thus obtained for investments on the real estate market. A stake of 68.3% in Bega Upsom was sold on the Bucharest Stock Exchange for 17 million dollars on Tuesday. The Cristescu brothers together owned more than 64% in the company for which they collected 16 million euros. Another seller in this deal was SIF Banat-Crisana, which held some 3.5%, for which it collected over 500,000 euros. Pol ish company Ciech, which operates in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, had last week announced plans to take over Upsom, but sources close to the deal say the controlling interests were eventually bought by another investor. ZF