TGS Baltic has advised Coinvest Capital on liquidating its investment in Lithuanian crisp producer Chazz through the sale of its 26% stake to the company's founders and other shareholders.
According to the firm, the transaction happened exactly six years after the fund's first investment in the Gusania company, which produces Chazz chips.
"There are many symbolic details in this deal – we are closing the investment after exactly six years, it was the fund's first investment, and, what is there to hide, the most prominent, because the company's founders deliberately chose the role of industry hooligans," Coinvest Capital Director Viktorija Trimbel commented. "This is a typical MBO deal where the ownership is bought out by the executives, which means that the most important people in the company take on the full burden of responsibility and believe in the prospects of the business. Respect to them and good luck in their growth!"
"We thank Coinvest Capital for believing in the idea of producing healthier snacks at a time when the only chip producer left Lithuania, and financial institutions kept repeating as a prayer that there was not a single successful food startup during the entire period of Independence," UAB Gusania Director Zilvinas Kulvinskis added. "For us, this investment was a commitment to raise the highest operational standards and create added value here in Lithuania. For several years now, Lithuanian vegetable snacks have been traveling to more than 30 countries around the world, we pay our employees much higher than average salaries, [and] we use the services of dozens of Lithuanian companies."
The TGS Baltic team included Partner Dalia Tamasauskaite-Ziliene, Associate Evelina Savickaite, and Legal Assistant Meda Stankute.
TGS Baltic did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.
