A company of Serhiy Zaytsev acquired the asset of Germany's Food Retail and Production – a modern starch factory in Zeitz (Germany) in 2011.

Zaytsev is now Deputy Director General of Roshen Corporation and holds 0.5% of the corporation's shares. Interstarch Ukraine today manages the factory.

"In 2011, my company acquired the asset at an auction for EUR 30 million. Over EUR 60 million was invested by the previous owners. I thought that I would additionally invest EUR 5-6 million in equipment and provide EUR 6 million of working capital. I planned to reach the projected capacity and resell it at the higher price as operating business within one year," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Zaytsev said that initially the co-investor in the deal was to be Intercorn belonging to a majority shareholder in Roshen Petro Poroshenko.

"He even went to Germany, looked at the factory, but decided against it at the last moment. He believed that the project was risky and offered that he would buy this asset at the market multiplier after the successful turn-around. We even signed a five-year option with him," he said.

Zaytsev said that initial calculations for the asset were not realized.

He said that during the creation of Roshen Corporation he refused to be its co-founder, but accepted a proposal to deal with raw materials purchases as he had experience and contacts in the industry.