May 14, 2010
By Roman Olearchyk
Via: www.ft.com
Even in Europe’s most depressed large economy, there are a few shafts of commercial light. Ukraine, where gross domestic product fell last year by a whopping 15 per cent, is witnessing a flurry of investment into its promising agricultural sector.
Businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk is mulling whether to take his farming company - Ukrlandfarming - public after this month sealing a $1bn valuation for Avangardco Investments. Egg producer Avangardco - which Bakhmatyuk owns - listed a 22 per cent stake on the London Stock Exchange. Now investment bankers in Kiev said Cyprus-registered Ukrlandfarming could raise $50-80mn via an IPO on London’s AIM this year.
A handful of Ukrainian agribusiness companies have gone public on European exchanges in recent years, including sunflower oil producer Kernel, as well as farming companies Landkom and Mriya Agro.
But apart from large-scale investments brought in by multinational agribusiness giants, including Cargill and ADM, the inflow of investment into promising domestically-owned companies is only starting...