Baker McKenzie has assisted with the successful formation of a private equity fund vehicle in Luxembourg and sourcing financing for the joint acquisition of a 16% equity stake in Allseeds S.A. by the Dutch development bank FMO and private equity manager Diligent Capital Partners.
The investment was made to realize Allseeds’ expansion plans of adding to its business line oilseed crushing and trans-shipment capacities, as well as to enable other value-added processing of vegetable oils and their by-products.
The transaction involved legal and tax structuring of the private equity fund vehicle to support investment in the target business as well as other future transactions with key input from Partner Catherine Martougin, Senior Associate Ali Bouhrara from the Private Equity Team and Tax Director Amar Hamouche from Tax practice Group of Baker McKenzie Luxembourg and was project-managed by Senior Associate Andrii Moskalyk under the overall supervision of Partner Viacheslav Yakymchuk from the Corporate and M&A Practice of Baker McKenzie Kyiv.
“This was a truly remarkable and exciting transaction for us and, we believe, for the Ukrainian market in general. In recent years, not so many deals have been designed for the purposes of private equity funds targeting Ukrainian business opportunities. We hope that this paves the way for transactions of a similar nature and magnitude in the near future and generally revives the interest of private equity investors in Ukrainian assets,” said Viacheslav Yakymchuk.
BAKER MCKENZIE, DILIGENT CAPITAL PARTNERS, FORMATION, PRIVATE EQUITY FUND
Lozova Machinery (a brand of cultivating agricultural machinery manufactured by the enterprises of the UPEC industrial group, Kharkiv region) soon will sign a distribution contract with BELARUS company, which will represent the products of Lozova Machinery in Germany, the press service of UPEC has reported. The relevant agreement was reached during the participation of Lozova Machinery in a large exhibition of agricultural products and agricultural machinery Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest 2018 in Stuttgart (Germany).
“We have agreed to cooperate with the largest European distributor of the Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ) – the BELARUS company, which has an extensive dealer network. In the near future, we will sign a distribution contract. It is planned that in the future BELARUS will represent the production of Lozova Machinery in Germany,” the press service said, citing Sales Director of the agricultural division of UPEC Eduard Chudopalov.
According to him, in Germany it is planned to expand the presence and demonstration of equipment at the exhibition events of the northern and eastern regions of this country.
“In particular, in February, with a new dealer, they scheduled joint participation in one of the largest German exhibitions in Leipzig,” he said.
The press service of UPEC told Interfax-Ukraine agency that currently there is one dealer of Lozova Machinery in Germany. The share of this country in the company’s European exports is 3%.
“But next year, we are counting on a significant increase in the share,” the press service said.
The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (Oregon, the United States), the manufacture of rolling stock, seeks to enter the Ukrainian market in the near term.
“We have been studying the Ukrainian market for several years and assume that we will come to this market in the near future,” Assistant Vice President for International Marketing at Greenbrier Adem Saglik said at the Rail Expo 2018 exhibition in Kyiv.
At the same time, he said that in order to make the Ukrainian market more attractive to foreign companies, it is necessary to make a number of legislative changes.
“It is important to adopt several laws, in particular, on market liberalization, so that private operators also have access to the market and there is competition… It is very important for us to see that private traction is supported by the government of the country,” he said.
According to Saglik, the sooner Ukraine liberalizes the traction market, the more European companies will come and start working.
Earlier, Greenbrier considered the option of creating a leasing company in Ukraine.
The Greenbrier Companies specializes in the manufacture and repair of railway rolling stock, provides management and leasing services for rail cars.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has selected PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) at a tender to design a new logistic chain of PJSC Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry reported last week. “At the end of the project an investment case would be created and it could be financed by the EIB jointly with other international institutions,” the ministry said.
According to the report, in six months, international advisors will develop several projects for the restructuring of the logistics network of Ukrposhta, which today consists of 35 sorting centers and more than 200 transport bases.
“It is important that these cases of the project will be immediately considered and defended with the technical specialists of the EIB from Luxembourg as one of the potential investors,” First Deputy CEO of Ukrposhta Oleksandr Petsovsky said.
The EIB does not disclose the amount for which the contract will be concluded.
As reported, in June, the EIB announced a tender for the selection of a consultant for the modernization of the logistics network of PJSC Ukrposhta with an estimated cost of EUR 400,000.
LOGISTIC CHAIN, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS, PROJECT, REALIGNMENT, TENDER, UKRPOSHTA
The share of coal of the structure of Ukraine’s energy balance to decline by 60% in 15 years, to 13%, and it will be replaced thanks to renewable energy, according to a forecast of the Razumkov Centre published by the center’s press service. According to the forecast, the share of green energy of the balance will grow fivefold in 15 years, to 25%. “Although the value of coal will gradually decrease – it will be replaced mainly by renewable energy, the coal industry will play a prominent role in the Ukrainian energy sector until 2035. First of all, for thermal generation, which performs an important function of maneuvering capacities,” the press service said, citing Director of Energy Programs Volodymyr Omelchenko.
According to forecasts, the share of gas and nuclear energy of primary energy consumption is expected to remain at the current level – 30% and 25%, respectively.
In addition, in the structure of the Ukrainian energy balance, the share of oil products may significantly decrease, to 7%.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
