CFG/Mriya agricultural holding, which has been operating as a single business since early 2019, in March bought agricultural machinery for the amount of $2.3 million, the press service of the company has reported.
The agricultural holding said that it bought 17 trailing units of agricultural machinery: 12 band spreaders and five cultivators. Deutsche Agrotechnik Ukraine, Rauch Landmaschinenfabrik GmbH and UAPC LLC supplied the machinery.
“This is the first of the planned deliveries of equipment for the CFG/Mriya joint agricultural holding this year. The general investor, Salic UK Ltd, intends to send several dozens of millions of dollars to update the CFG/Mriya fleet in 2019 to ensure further effective activity of the merged company,” the company said in a press release.
Mriya Agro Holding is a vertically integrated agribusiness, which was founded by Ivan Huta in 1992. The holding’s land bank is 165,000 hectares. Its grain elevators are able to store 380,000 tonnes.
In August 2014, Mriya reported an overdue payment of about $9 million in interest income and about $120 million in repayment of debt on its obligations. The total debt to all financial creditors, taking into account the guarantees provided to the companies related to the Huta family, was about $1.3 billion at the time of the holding’s default.
In early February 2015, the operating control of the holding was transferred to creditors who elected the new management, and in September 2016 the committees of creditors and bondholders of the holding agreed on the conditions for the restructuring of the company’s debt, which was estimated at $1.1 billion. The debt restructuring ended in August 2018. Mriya’s total debt burden decreased from $1.1 billion to $309.5 million, which included $49.3 million in restructured secured debt, $208.1 million in restructured unsecured debt (eurobonds), $46 million in working capital, and $6.1 million in assets under a new leasing program for the purchase of equipment.
In September 2018, SALIC UK Limited announced the acquisition of the holding. The deal was completed in November 2018.
Mriya will continue operations in Ukraine together with SALIC UK’s subsidiary, CFG.
The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Sovereign Fund of Saudi Arabia. The company invests in the production of agricultural and livestock products.
CFG has been operating in Ukraine since 2006. It processes 45,000 hectares in Lviv and Ternopil regions.
