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Wimm-Bill-Dann Successfully Completes Secondary Offering of Common Stock by Shareholders.


MOSCOW -- Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC OJSC - Open Joint Stock Company (NYSE: WBD WBD - Wide Band Data Instrument (Cluster spacecraft)
WBD - Wideband Data
WBD - Will Be Done
), Russia's leading manufacturer of dairy products and beverages, today announced the successful completion of a secondary offering of common stock by certain shareholders on the Russian stock market.

Russian and foreign institutional investors, who are trading actively on the Russian stock market, acquired 4,400,000 local common shares of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (or 10% of the outstanding shares) through an accelerated bookbuilding process in a lead-managed public offering. Wimm-Bill-Dann's shareholders and the management of the company are convinced that this step will contribute to a significant increase in the liquidity of the company's shares on the Russian stock market.

The shares were offered to the market by certain shareholders. Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods did not sell any shares in, and will not receive any of the proceeds from, the offering. The shares were offered to the market within a US$36 to US$39 per share range, and sold at US$37.5 per share.

Following the transaction the holdings of Sergei Plastinin in the company's share capital were reduced from 10.75% to 9.01%1, Alexandr Orlov from 3.99% to 3.17%, Viktor Evdokimov from 0.39% to 0.05%, Mikhail Dubinin from 6.52% to 5.17%, Mikhail Vishnyakov from 2.36% to 1%, Parex Banka Banka: see Bangka, Indonesia. from 4.81% to 0.42%. David Iakobachvili, Chairman of the Board of Directors, (owns 10.12%) and Gavril Yushvaev (owns 19.45%) did not participate in the offering and did not sell any shares.

Troika Dialog was the sole book-running manager of the offering.

"We welcome the interest shown by shareholders of large Russian companies, the shares of which also trade on foreign exchanges, in domestic trading platforms. The offering of Wimm-Bill-Dann's shares took place against a backdrop of increased market activity and several other major placements by Russian companies," notes Ruben Vardanyan, Chairman of Board of Directors and CEO of the Troika Dialog group of companies. "The very fact that the company's shares were placed successfully on the RTS exchange among several dozen large institutional investors again demonstrates the appetite of the domestic capital markets for securities issued by strongly performing companies."

It is anticipated that as a result of the offering, the quantity of ordinary shares of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC which trade on the Russian stock market will increase to 18.9% of the charter capital of the company.

Some of the information contained in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements to conform them to actual results. We refer you to the documents Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically, the Company's most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned "Risk Factors" in our Form 20-F, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, and risks associated with our competitive environment, acquisition strategy, ability to develop new products or maintain market share, brand and company image, operating in Russia, volatility of stock price, financial risk management, and future growth.

ABOUT WIMM WIMM - Weapon Integrated Material Manager
WIMM - Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (Oxford, UK)
WIMM - Where is My Mind? (band and song)
-BILL-DANN OJSC

Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC is a leading manufacturer of dairy products and beverages in Russia. The company was founded in 1992.

The Company currently owns 32 manufacturing facilities in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well as trade affiliates in 26 cities in Russia and the CIS.

Wimm-Bill-Dann has a diversified branded portfolio with over 1,000 types of dairy products and over 150 types of juice, nectars and still drinks. The company currently employs over 17,000 people.

On May 18, 2006, Standard & Poor's Governance Services announced the upgrade of WBD's Corporate Governance Score (CGS) from 7 to 7+ (from 7.3 and 7.7 accordingly on the Russian national scale), which makes the Company's score the highest rating in Russia. The increase in the score reflects the effective work of the Board of Directors and, in particular, the real influence of independent directors in the decision-making process and the adherence of the controlling shareholders to the highest standards of corporate governance.

1 Information presented here and elsewhere about the quantity of shares of the company belonging to shareholders is calculated by taking into account the ownership by shareholders of both common shares and global depository receipts (GDRs).
COPYRIGHT 2006 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Business Wire
Date:Nov 7, 2006
Words:790
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