News archive
23 August 2018
Rostagro becomes part of Trust Bank
News -Rostagro (Rosagro till 2018), an agroholding operating 377,000 hectares in Russia, has been passed into the ownership of Trust Bank as part of the financial curing of Binbank, a former owner of Rostagro. The Central Bank of Russia has established a fund of non-core and troubled assets of weak banks on the premises of Trust Bank. As of May 2018, Rostagro was Russia’s ninth largest agroholding.
22 August 2018
JBS to expand its operations in the US
News -The US expansion of JBS, the largest manufacturer of animal-based products and animal protein in the world, has been a factor of optimism for investors. JBS invests in expansion and higher visibility of its branded products. The US retail networks are reducing the number of outlets with own butcher shops. With that, sale of packaged and branded...
22 August 2018
Kletsky: The future of agricultural investments is in Europe
News -Mila Kletsky, President and Academic Director of the investment consultancy Picking Alpha, believes that Europe possesses a combination of factors that make it the best place for successful investments in agriculture, e.g. well educated people, big and stable demand, non-shrinking middle class, etc. She made this statement at the IAMO Forum 2018 in Halle, Germany. She added that the middle class is the basis for a steady demand while investors find it reasonable to invest in the markets where the consumers are ready to spend money. The extended interview with Mila Kletsky will soon follow on our website this week.
22 August 2018
Evrodon suffering from mudslinging?
News -Evrodon, a Russia’s leading poultry producer, has reportedly passed the payment deadline on a loan, issued by VEB Capital (a subsidiary of Vnesheconombank). According to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, the amount of the failed payment reaches several hundred millions of rubles. Besides, the representatives of VEB Capital are analyzing the financial position of the company and the opportunities for debt restructuring at the moment. Evrodon, on the contrary, considers these media reports as a mudslinging and claims to suffer from information attack. The company representative tells that VEB Capital’s experts have been working at Evrodon’s head office on a regular basis since July 2017 when VEB Capital became the main owner of Evrodon.
22 August 2018
Rostok Holding harvested 69,400 tonnes of grains
News -Rostok Holding, a vertically integrated Ukrainian agroholding operating 60,000 hectares, 5 animal farms and 3 elevator facilities, has finished harvesting of grains with a total result of 69,400 tonnes. In particular, the company has harvested 40,900 tonnes of winter wheat from 6,700 hectares and 3,400 tonnes of peas from the area of 1,100...
21 August 2018
Idavang to build a pig farm in Russia
News -Idavang Agro, an agricultural subsidiary of the Danish holding Idavang A/S running pig farm business in Russia and Lithuania, has started building a pig farm for 55,000 pigs including 3,500 sows with a production capacity of 12,000 tonnes of pork or 98,000 of pigs per year in the Leningrad region of Russia. The total worth of the investment project amounts to RUB 3.7 billion. As reported, the new farm is to be built by 2022 and is expected to increase the pork production in the region by 30% after achieving its full capacity.
21 August 2018
Mriya completed $ 1.1 billion debt restructuring
News -Mriya Agroholding, a group of companies operating 165,000 ha in 6 regions of Ukraine, successfully completed a debt-for-equity swap worth $ 1.1 billion. The company handed 100% of the assets, including the land, infrastructure facilities, production capacities and equipment, to Mriya Farming PLC (Great Britain), owned by Mriya Agroholding’s major...
21 August 2018
Large farms bear less food safety costs in the US
News -According to the recent USDA report, fresh produce small farms will need to spend up to 6-7 % of their revenues in order to comply with the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA), compared to only 0.3 % for large growers. Small farms are defined as farms which generate less than $ 500,000 in annual sales, and large farms are those with annual sales above $ 3.5 million. To comply with the FSMA statutes, which were enacted in 2011, it is necessary to meet certain requirements in e.g. water testing, worker training, and recordkeeping. The additional expenses may prompt some small farms to stop growing fresh produce crops or sell off their operations and leave the business.
21 August 2018
Olzha-Agro undergoes restructuring
News -Olzha Agro (former Ivolga Holding), an agroholding operating 840,000 ha in Kazakhstan, undergoes restructuring under the lead of a new CEO Aidarbek Khodzhanazarov after former Ivolga Holding was adjudged bankrupt. According to the new CEO, creation of the autonomous subdivisions within a company was the key restructuring measure. Besides, the...
21 August 2018
Nibulon to increase the storage capacity of its elevators
News -Nibulon, a Ukrainian leading crop producer and exporter operating 82,500 ha in 12 regions of the country, intends to increase the storage capacity of its five terminal elevators in the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions by the beginning of 2019/20 marketing year. In total, 84,500 tonnes of extra storage facilities are to be added to the...