UK private equity firm to take majority stake in Serbia foods group

BELGRADE (Reuters) - UK-based private equity firm Mid Europa Partners said on Monday it had signed a binding agreement to buy a majority stake in Serbia's Danube Foods Group, which includes the country's major dairy producers and a large mineral water bottling plant.

Mid Europa Investment said in a statement it expected to complete the transaction in the first half of the year, but gave no other details of the deal.

With revenues of 400 million euros (301 million pounds) last year, Danube Foods Group is one of the largest consumer goods companies in Serbia.

It includes Mlekara Subotica, Imlek dairy, which has subsidiaries in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, and bottling plant Knjaz Milos.

In 2007, Mid Europa Partners bought a stake in regional cable operator SBB and sold it to U.S. investment firm KKR last year.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; editing by David Clarke)