INVL Asset Management pension funds acquire 5.5 per cent of Rokiškio Sūris shares

Pension funds run by INVL Asset Management, one of Lithuania’s leading asset management companies, acquired 5.5 per cent of the shares of the Lithuanian dairy company Rokiškio Sūris AB for EUR 4.5 million.

A price per share of EUR 2.51 was paid in the transaction, which was completed on 10 October, valuing the entire company Rokiškio Sūris at EUR 81 million.

“Recognizing Rokiškio Sūris’s accumulated experience and future potential, we’re investing money from pension funds to which over a hundred thousand of the country’s residents have entrusted their assets into this company’s shares,” said Vaidotas Rūkas, Chief Investment Officer at INVL Asset Management.

Rokiškio Sūris has announced plans for issuing new shares to the New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra. It is planned that Fonterra will acquire a 10 per cent equity stake in Rokiškio Sūris. “We believe this move will open up new expansion opportunities for Rokiškio Sūris and enhance its governance,” Vaidotas Rūkas said.

“The management of Rokiškio Sūris welcomes that fact that pension funds managed by Invalda INVL group company have become shareholders. The group is well-known as a constructive investor and we’re confident that the change of shareholders will benefit the company as well as all its shareholders, large and small. We think this step also shows the new shareholder’s approval for Fonterra’s arrival as a strategic investor at the company,” said Dalius Trumpa, Chairman of the Board of Rokiškio Sūris.

In 2016, Rokiškio Sūris earned revenue of EUR 226.2 million and a net profit of EUR 10.5 million, and had total equity of EUR 122.1 million.

The INVL Baltic Fund, a mutual fund managed by INVL Asset Management, has previously invested in shares of Rokiškio Sūris.

INVL Asset Management’s pension funds are active participants in the Baltic capital market, having invested more than EUR 40 million in real estate and private equity funds here as well as listed stocks and bonds. In this way they seek the mutual benefit of both the funds’ participants and the national economy.

INVL Asset Management is part of the Invalda INVL group, whose companies manage pension and mutual funds, alternative investments, private equity assets, individual portfolios and other financial instruments. Over 180,000 clients in Lithuania and Latvia and international investors rely on them to manage more than EUR 540 million of assets.