President Poroshenko Finding it Difficult to Attract Buyers for his Chocolate Empire

Ukraine's Chocolate King, President Petro Poroshenko is finding it difficult to sell his candy empire in times of war.

The company, Roshen, made $1.2 billion in annual sales but is finding it hard to persuade big name brands like Nestle and Mondelez, which owns the Cadbury brand, to show interest.

"It's all academic given the political situation at the moment," said a financial source closely following the situation."But at its core it makes your mouth water," reports the Moscow Times.

Poroshenko has hired advisors Rothschild and local firm Investment Capital Ukraine to rope in prospective buyers. The company has been valued at $1.5 billion.

On paper  Roshen is not a bad buy for any investor. It is ranked 18 in the world by net sales, according to the Candy Industry Top 100. The Eastern Europe region accounts for 12.8 pecent of the world's candy sales.

"Contact has been made with prospective buyers but it's very preliminary," said one of the sources, reports Reuters. "This is a big and complex situation and any sale is not going to happen in a few weeks. Don't expect anything imminent."

The company has four factories in Ukraine and in Lithuania, Hungary as well as in Russia. Roshen, most probably will be sold off piecemeal, say experts as it is too big for players in Ukraine.

Russia was a lucrative market for Roshen chocolates but the ongoing Ukraine crisis and Russia's role in the upheaval has seen one of the biggest importers of its chocolates banning all sales of chocolates from Ukraine in July.

A list of prospective buyers at the moment includes Korean firm Lotte, which bought Poland's Wedel from Kraft Foods in 2010, and Turkish food manufacturer Ulker, reports Reuters.

Petro Poroshenko had promised in an interview to a German newspaper before the presidential elections that if he got elected he would sell his chocolate empire, according to Bloomberg.

He had said he was not interested in running an oligarchy where political decisions might be rule by business interests.