Ukraine: Agroton plans IPO on Warsaw Stock Exchange

Kiev / UA. (apl) Agroton Public Limited has published its prospectus. The prospectus has been approved by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and notified to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, the company said in a press release. Agroton Group is a diversified, vertically integrated agricultural producer in eastern Ukraine.

Agroton expects to raise gross proceeds of up to 170 million UAH (15,2 million EUR) from the public offering. The primary reasons for the offering are to acquire additional grain storage capacity, expand the land bank under management, purchase agricultural machinery for cultivation of land, and increase the working capital. The initial listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange is planned for early November of this year.

Agroton is the largest and most diversified agricultural producer in eastern Ukraine. The company is vertically integrated, and its core business is cultivation, processing, storage and sale of grain, chiefly sunflower and wheat. The company also handles production and sale of livestock as well as food production.

Since 2001 Agroton has tripled its acreage under production, and it now manages 151’000 hectares of black earth. This makes Agroton the fifth-largest listed company in Ukraine in the agricultural sector in terms of acreage, and the sixth-largest in Europe.

Agroton is the largest producer of sunflower seeds and the fourth-largest wheat producer in Ukraine. The company has storage facilities with a capacity of about 235’000 metric tonnes, which allows it to sell its products during periods with the most favourable prices. The current capacity of Agroton´s grain elevators makes it the largest grain elevator operator in the Luhansk region.

The company achieves high production profitability thanks to high-quality soil and low production costs. With respect to production and sale of livestock, Agroton is the largest poultry producer in the Luhansk region, raising about four million chickens. The company also has 4’500 head of dairy cows, making it the fifth-largest milk producer in Ukraine. Agroton is also the second-largest producer of baked goods in the Luhansk region, with about 7’000 tonnes per year (source).