PRESS RELEASES
Il Sole 24 Ore, September 19, 1995
Cerina bets on food industry
Away from Argentina, in order to strengthen the investments in Italy and the U.S. The financer Fabrizio Cerina sold his assets in South America and is now ready to further expand his presence in an industry he considers strategic, across the Ocean and at home.
Cerina, born in Emilia, 41 years old, works since a long time across the border. At the centre of the group he controls, there is the Luxembourg company Crédit des Alpes Holding, which owns both the industrial and financial investments. Switzerland is by many aspects the operative centre of the group. There operates Crédit des Alpes, a subsidiary finance company with banking licence, having branches in Geneva and Lugano.
In the USA, instead, Cerina recently bought the majority of the Californian Fudget, a company listed on the Nasdaq, specialised in fat-free food. The Fudgets is expanding, and should close 1995 with a turnover of already about 70 million dollars.
In the States, Cerina is moreover allowing himself a relevant digression. By means of a few mergers, he is in fact creating a new company for the distribution of video cassettes, with the aim of giving birth to the second American network in this sector. But remaining in the food business, Cerina is also closely involved with the Mamiamese, a company in Parma which owns some refrigerating plants among the largest in Europe (mainly for meat).
Successfully beyond the crisis that touched Attel, his financial company, during the past years, by refunding out of his own pocket those who claimed a credit, Cerina also made investments in Argentina, through an alliance with the Langes-Swarovski family, participating in businesses such as tannage, real estate and food supply. «They were - he explains - profitable investments. However, I think that now a certain phase is finished in Argentina: costs are rising and, despite the good economical policy of the Government, it will not be possible for foreign investors to get the same returns of the past».
By selling his shares in Argentina, Cerina has new resources for the bet he made both in finance and in the food industry. A business organised from what is his headquarters on Swiss soil. With the due respect for the largest market on Earth, the American one and also for the land of his origins.
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