JSC Igristie Vina, the leading Russian sparkling wine producer, acquired a 70 pct stake in Italian winemaker Contarini Vini e Spumanti spa, one of the leading producer of Prosecco Docg. The company will be supported in the deal by other investors so that the control of the whole Italian company will be taken over by Igristie Vina and its co-investors for 8 million euros, The money will be used for paying back part of the over 20 million euros of Contarini’s debt.
Vasily Dragan, the owner of Igristie Vina, told Kommersant daily last September that Contarini’s remaining share would be acquired by a Spanish wine material supplier Antonio Kala Moreno and an Italian winemakers’ cooperative.
More in detail, last July a Court in Treviso (Italy) admitted Contarini to a composition procedure accepting the offer from Dragan to rent the business for two years for 5 million euros and than buy the whole company. After the go ahead of Contarini’s creditors, Igristie VIna is now in control of Contarini.
Contarini is one of the three largest producers of Prosecco dry sparkling wine, with a production of over 20 million bottles, 500k of which exported to Russia. Igristie VIna aims at exporting more than one million of bottles in Russia this year.
This is not the first time Russian wine producers buy Italian wineries. Last August 2013 Russian Standard. one of the leading producers of wodka and wine in Russia, announced it has reached a 94.1 pct stake in Gancia’s shareholders capital up from a 70 pct stake bought in 2011. Founded in 1850, Gancia spa, was the creator of the first Italian sparkling wine and it is now an international leader in the sector with revenues of 113 million euros.
