The acquisition of Guardian insurance company (Kyiv) by new shareholder, who is citizen of Lithuania, Arunas Siksta was started on March 12, 2019, the insurer has said in a press release.
According to the report, Siksta is a senior manager with thirty years of experience in banking, insurance and telecommunications. In particular, he collaborated with AB Swedbank, which representative office he headed in Lithuania, as well as with Norway’s largest insurance company, Gjensidige, where he served as deputy board chairman. In addition, for several years he was engaged in the integrated construction of a financial infrastructure for European banks, including the creation of insurance companies from scratch.
According to the press release, the new shareholder was satisfied with the results of the financial and personnel audit of Guardian insurance company.
“My auditors provided enough information that I found to be perfectly satisfactory. According to the results of the financial statements, the company’s performance is at a proper financially stable level, and the staff is highly qualified, which is what the figures say. Based on this, I see no need to reform the company or make any rotations. All management, employees and branches will work in the same mode and composition. Our plans are only to expand and improve the quality of services for our clients,” the company said in the press release, citing Siksta.
The press service also said that during the visit of the new shareholder of Guardian to Ukraine, he met with Head of the National Commission for Financial Service Markets Regulation of Ukraine Ihor Pashko and President of the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine Oleksandr Filoniuk. At the meeting, Siksta expressed confidence that the Guardian insurance company would be a worthy example of effective investments in the Ukrainian insurance market, and by providing services at a new level of quality it would increase customer confidence in this sector.
“Today, Lithuanian investments in the Ukrainian market are coming more and more often, but not in such volumes and not in the insurance sector. You are the first and we are very pleased with such serious investors,” Pashko said.
Guardian has been working in the insurance market since 2007.
Mriya agroholding in June 2018 received an offer to acquire the entire business and assets of the company from an international strategic investor who has experience of operations in Ukraine. “The cost of this offer envisages (if the transaction is signed) compensation to holders of bonds issued by Mriya Farming in connection with the restructuring of about 50 to 60 cents per U.S. dollar of face value of new bonds outstanding after the restructuring is completed (expenses related to the transaction deducted),” the press service of the agroholding reported.
The offer involves a number of conditions, including the successful completion of the restructuring of the company and its subsidiaries, as well as obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals. Secured debt is proposed for acceptation by the strategic investor and servicing in accordance with existing or other agreements between the potential buyer and secured creditors.
“The company intends to enter into negotiations with the offeror on the terms of the potential deal to approve the necessary documentation for the binding offer. After the completion of the restructuring any sale of the company is to be agreed with the shareholders of the company in accordance with the terms of the issue of new bonds and shareholders’ agreement of Mriya Farming adopted in line with the terms of the restructuring,” Mriya said.
At the same time, the agricultural holding said that the offer is not a guarantee of the signing of the deal, a condition of which is still reaching an agreement on the final terms of the documents required for the transaction.
Mriya reported that Rothschild is the sole financial advisor, and Hogan Lovells acts as a legal advisor in matters related to the sale. As reported, in May 2017, Mriya and IFC approved the conditions for restructuring of Mriya’s debt. The parties agreed to split the debt into a secured and unsecured part. They also stipulated terms for restructuring the secured part of the debt. Mriya’s unsecured debt to IFC will be restructured on common conditions for all unsecured creditors.
Mriya’s total debt is $1.087 billion, of which $46 million is loans for working capital, $7 million for leasing of agricultural machinery, $130 million is secured loans, and $904 million is unsecured loans.
After the restructuring, the amount of secured loans will be reduced to $62 million, unsecured ones to $213 million. Mriya is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding founded by Ivan Huta in 1992. Today, its land bank is 165,000 ha in Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Rivne regions. The capacity of its grain storage facilities is estimated at 380,000 tonnes.
