By Andrei Skvarsky.
Uzbek shoe manufacturer Grand Leather Shoes has bought out a dysfunctional electrical heating equipment producer as part of Uzbekistan’s current sweeping privatisation programme, with Central Asia-focused Bluestone Investment Bank leading the shoe company through the $1.9m acquisition.
Grand Leather Shoes, whose name in Uzbek is Grand Charm Poyafzallari, acquired a stake of 61.9 per cent in UzElectroterm through an auction held at the Tashkent Republican Stock Exchange, according to a statement from the shoe firm and Bluestone.
The shoe company paid 20.08bn Uzbek som ($1.9m) for the stake after the price had rocketed up 35.3 per cent during the auction from the starting level of 14.8bn som ($1.4m).
Grand Leather Shoes, which, as UzElectroterm, is based in the city of Namangan, makes shoes for men, women and children. Besides sales within Uzbekistan, it exports some of its products to countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
It expects its buyout of UzElectroterm, which it plans to convert into a shoe-making facility, to enable it to expand its export geography outside the CIS.
Bluestone, which is an investment bank and a brokerage, raises capital for Central Asian companies, helps international corporations to enter the Central Asian market through acquisitions and offers comprehensive sales and trading services to global and local investors.
Bluestone is based in New York and Tashkent.
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