(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Vladimir Lisin, the owner of Russia’s biggest steel company, has agreed to purchase a baby-food producer that competes locally with PepsiCo Inc., diversifying his business portfolio inside the country.
The businessman, who’s worth about $28.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is buying Lipetsk-based Progress JSC, one of the leading makers of baby food in Russia, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified to discuss private information.
The sum of the deal is about 70 billion rubles ($750 million), the person said.
Progress produces the FrutoNyanya brand of baby food and Lipetsky Buvet mineral water. Last year, FrutoNyanya’s dairy products for children were the second best-selling behind PepsiCo’s Agusha, according to market-research firm NTech. Progress’s revenue increased by almost 15% last year to 38 billion rubles, according to the Spark-Interfax database. Revenue from baby food as well as dairy at PepsiCo’s Russian unit increased 10% last year, to 129 billion rubles.
A spokesperson for the steelmaker said the company doesn’t have any information on the deal. The press office at Progress didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
The RBC newspaper earlier reported the deal.
Progress was founded in 1989, and was controlled by three private owners through JSC Progress Capital as of the end of 2023, according to Interfax.
Lisin isn’t under US, UK or European Union sanctions. Much of his fortune is derived from his 79.3% stake in Novolipetsk Steel PJSC. Last year, he sold Freight One, among the biggest freight-rail operators in Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sweeping sanctions imposed by the US and its allies have left the country’s richest people with a dwindling number of places to invest in outside of the domestic market. Investment in Russian industries jumped 14.5% year-on-year in the first quarter to a record of almost 6 trillion rubles, central bank data showed. Still, local opportunities are limited.
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