A private Russian company has won a tender to acquire an insolvent Moscow vitamin factory in a milestone deal for the government's bankruptcy program, Interfax reported Tuesday.


Santex won the tender to buy the Moscow Experimental Vitamin Factory with a pledge to invest more than $10 million, almost twice as much as the $5.1 million minimum set by the Federal Bankruptcy Agency, Interfax said. Santex now has one month to repay the 360 million rubles ($116,000) the plant owes to its creditors and must continue to produce medications, the agency reported.


The factory was one of three bankrupt state firms taken over last August in the government's first attempt to force the restructuring and sell-off of insolvent enterprises.


Officials at the time said the move was the first step toward widespread closures of obsolete enterprises, which experts say could bring the deep economic restructuring the country sorely needs, but could also lead to mass layoffs and social unrest.