Nova Poshta LLC has taken out a $20 million loan from Credit Agricole Bank to buy out a cargo and postal terminal in Lviv region to improve the company’s logistics capacities in western Ukraine.
“The loan term is five years. The money will be used to develop a logistics hub in Lviv,” Nova Poshta said in a statement on Monday.
It is specified that the loan funds will also be used to automate and install new modern sorting lines, which will triple the hub’s capacity.
“This is not the first loan to Nova Poshta from Credit Agricole, and the new agreement is a consistent development of our strategic cooperation. When the time comes to finance large-scale international projects, we want to have a reliable credit reputation with leading European banks,” Petro Fokov, CFO of NOVA Group, said in the release.
Nova Poshta LLC, the largest logistics operator in Ukraine from the NOVA group, intends to acquire Nova Development LLC (Sokilnyky village, Lviv district, Lviv region), whose main activity is the lease and operation of its own or leased real estate.
As reported, at the end of February this year, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine granted Nova Poshta permission to purchase more than 50% of Nova Development, the legal successor of Best Logistics Group, which was engaged in the construction and leasing of logistics complexes and was part of the full-cycle development holding Globus.
“Best Logistics Group has already cooperated with Nova Poshta during the construction of a sorting terminal in Lviv in 2019, with investments of almost EUR 10 million, with Nova Poshta’s investment of approximately EUR 4 million. According to Vyacheslav Klimov, co-founder of NOVA Group, Nova Poshta was responsible for the equipment, while Best Logistics Group was responsible for the construction of the building.
The authorized capital of Nova Development, according to the state register, is UAH 186.4 million, while that of Best Logistics Group was UAH 1 million. Volodymyr Fenyk is listed as a beneficiary through the corporate venture investment fund Magistrate Invest.
According to Nova Poshta’s report for the first half of 2024, its debt to banks as of the middle of this year amounted to UAH 3.4 billion, including UAH 489.2 million to a subsidiary of a French bank, UAH 1 billion 474.6 million to an Austrian bank, UAH 420.3 million to a Hungarian bank, and UAH 4.4 million to a German bank, as well as two loans from a Ukrainian bank worth UAH 747.7 million.
In the first half of 2024, Nova Poshta LLC increased its unconsolidated net income by 20.1% to UAH 20.12 billion, but the company’s net profit decreased by 38.1% to UAH 1.49 billion.
