INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund-backed Galinta expands abroad with deal to acquire 100% of Poland’s Cenos
Galinta, a portfolio company of the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, the leading private equity fund in the Baltics, signed an agreement on the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Cenos, one of Poland’s biggest producers and distributors of salt, rice and other groats. Galinta, one of the largest producers of buckwheat groats in Europe and a leading producer and trader of flakes, rice and other groats in the Baltics, also announced it completed the acquisition of Ekofrisa, a Lithuanian maker of buckwheat and related products.
Cenos, which has been operating on the market for more than 30 years, produces and sells rice, groats, peas, beans and flakes, and also trades “Osole”-brand table salt. The company earns most of its revenue (98%) on the Polish market. For the last three years, Cenos has had average annual revenue of approximately EUR 37 million. The company has 150 employees.
“Over the past six years, we have built a strong company in Poland by significantly improving our operations and establishing efficient marketing and sales organization. This in turn has translated into higher level of distribution and increased sales volumes of our products. The main brands in the Cenos portfolio currently rank first or among the top three market leaders in their respective product categories in Poland.
The sector in which the company operates is highly competitive and requires regional consolidation to increase efficiency. In line with our strategic priorities, we have decided to focus on our core activities. We believe that the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund will be a good platform for the company's further growth and development," says Darius Saikevičius, CEO of Gemini Grupė, the company currently holding Cenos shares.
Tadas Petkevičius, the Investment Manager of the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund and Chairman of the Board of Galinta, says: “The Cenos deal is strategically important for Galinta to be able to grow more rapidly on the Polish market. The transaction will strengthen the company’s current standing in the rice and other groats segment by adding a well-known brand to its portfolio and a new category –table salt– to its product range. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Ekofrisa, a producer of buckwheat and buckwheat products, no doubt opens up more opportunities to establish a presence in business-to-business export markets.”
Completion of the Cenos purchase-and-sale transaction requires the permission of Poland’s competition and consumer protection authorities.
Galinta currently supplies retail chains in Poland with private-label products.
Ekofrisa, as a producer of buckwheat and other groats and related products, including ecological offerings, exports about 80% of all its output to much of Europe (including Germany, France, Spain and Scandinavia) as well as to the USA, Israel and Australia.
Prior to completion of the transaction, Synergy Finance’s Taurus Investment Fund owned 85% of the shares of Ekofrisos and Lina Dužinskienė held 15%. Last year the company had EUR 7.6 million of revenue with approximately 60 employees.
In its time under fund ownership, Galinta has sold its agricultural companies and streamlined its operations to focus solely on the production and trade of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). In 2024, Galinta had revenue of EUR 26 million. As a supplier to the largest retail chains in the Baltic countries and Poland, the company has successfully increased its exports in recent years and is actively seeking new acquisitions.
In the Cenos transaction, Wolf Theiss (Poland) and TEGOS (Lithuania) acted as legal advisors to the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, while Thedy & Partners (Poland) served as financial advisor. Cenos received legal advice from MJH (Poland).
In the Ekofrisa transaction, the fund’s legal advisor was TEGOS and its financial advisor was Forvis Mazars Lithuania. The shareholders of Ekofrisa were advised on legal matters by Šenavičius ir Partneriai RESPONSE.
In February, the Invalda INVL group announced the first closing of its new INVL Private Equity Fund II at EUR 305 million. That made it the largest private equity fund in the Baltics.
About the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund
With a fund size of EUR 165 million, the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund is the leading private equity fund in the Baltics. Its anchor investor is the European Investment Fund (EIF), which is a part of the European Investment Bank, and committed EUR 30 million with the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (a key element of the Investment Plan for Europe, or the Junker Plan) while also allocating resources from the Baltic Innovation Fund (a “fund of funds” initiative developed in cooperation with the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to increase capital investment in high-growth potential small and medium-sized enterprises in the Baltics). The fund is managed by the leading asset management group in the Baltics Invalda INVL group, which companies manage or have under supervision over EUR 1.9 billion of assets.
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