Alexander Lozova, Deputy Head of Research, at Investcafe said that the sale of the shares by Danone is conditional upon the appropriate governmental approvals for the merger of Danone's Fresh Dairy Product businesses in the CIS region and Unimilk, which was announced on June 18. Danone will control 57.5% and Unimilk's shareholders will own 42.5% of the new company.

“The sale of stake in WBD is due to the requirements of the Russian antimonopoly legislation. The WBD share of the Russian dairy market is about 28%, Unimilk – 16%, Danone – 14% The Danone merger with Unimilk enlarges the proportion of the combined company to 30%. Ownership of shares in WBD poses a risk of monopolization of the market for dairy products in Russia.”

Yekaterina Andreyanova of Rye, Man & Gor Securities says WBD is getting a discount on its shares held by Danone.

"The deal infers a price of $58 per share and $14.5 per ADR, which is higher than the local market but markedly lower than the ADR price"

TCB Capital analyst, Natalya Kolupayeva, doesn’t think WBD is buying the shares back at a
knock-down price.

"Given that Danone's stake consists of ordinary shares and ADRs in roughly equal proportions, the overall cost of the block of shares ought to carry a premium of about 25% against the local price and a 21% discount on the ADR price”

Unicredit analyst, Vladimir Kuznetsov, believes the shares are being bought at a discount and could be used to help with further acquisitions by Wimm-Bill-Dann.

“WBD has not yet commented on the use of repurchased shares, but if the company
decides to cancel them, we believe that would be another positive, given the shift in the
company’s capital structure from equity to much cheaper debt. However, we believe the company could use the shares for acquisitions, given that its key shareholder David Yakobashvili
has previously said that WBD is “interested in everything, including milk, baby food, and
juice.”