Business news

MINSK, 18 December (BelTA) – Knauf Gips has acquired a 50% share in the charter capital of OOO Volma Corporation. This is why Knauf Gips undertakes half of the commitment to invest money in OAO Belgips, BelTA learned from Knauf Gips Managing Partner Manfred Grundke on 18 December.

According to the source, about €70 million will be invested. “It is a lot of money. We believe that the Belarusian market will develop with regard to the usage of our products. We will be able to satisfy the domestic market and export products,” noted Manfred Grundke.

In his words, Belgips will be able to rely on many years of experience of Knauf Gips as a leader of the world market of gypsum-based construction materials. Knauf Gips’ modern manufacturing technologies and know-how will allow Belgips to secure new quality of products in addition to taking care of environmental safety and economic effectiveness.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Volma Corporation Yuri Goncharov said he was confident that the deal is particularly valuable. It will allow combining efforts and expertise of the leading manufacturers of gypsum construction materials for the sake of future development of the Belarusian company. It will create potential for import substitution in Belarus and will give an impulse to the promotion of Belgips products onto new export markets.

The deal will allow financing the construction of a new factory in the town of Gatovo, Minsk District in full.

Volma Corporation was granted the right to buy the state-owned package of shares in Belgips by presidential decree No.34 of 16 January 2014. As part of the deal Volma Corporation signed an investment contract to modernize Belgips’ manufacturing facilities and build a new construction materials factory in the town of Gatovo, Minsk District.

The construction of the new Belgips enterprise began in October 2015. The new enterprise is supposed to make 30 million m2 of gypsum plasterboards per annum as well as 500,000m2 of gypsum partition blocks and 100,000 tonnes of dry building mixtures.