The State Property Fund (SPF) has secured payment of UAH 194.4 million for the purchase of the Kosarsk distillery (Kosari village and Smela, Cherkasy region) from Ristone Holdings’ Agrofirma im. Gorky LLC (Kyiv), according to the SPF Facebook page.
The SPF reminded that the privatization auction was held almost a year and a half ago – November 1, 2021. At the auction price increased by 3.3 times – up to UAH 162 million from the starting UAH 49.4 million. Subsequently, the winner filed a lawsuit in court and argued that allegedly the State Property Fund “did not report about the shortcomings of the property of the distillery, which could prevent the winner to fully use the enterprise.
“On May 3, 2023 the Commercial Court of Kiev, based on the forensic examination, denied the plaintiff’s claim. Today, the funds from the privatization came into the state budget and will work to strengthen our defense capability,” the Fund said in a statement.
According to the SPF website, the privatized asset consists of 1.36 thousand items of buildings, structures, movable and other property, including a production building, fermentation department, granary and distillery, bardon pumping station, company store, pig farm, warehouses, hangars, etc.
The object is equipped with the basic technological equipment, as well as the necessary utilities. The capacity of the plant can produce about 35 thousand liters of alcohol per year.
The enterprise is located on nine land plots with a total area of 75.74 hectares in Kosari and Smela.
Ristone Holdings group of companies – vertically integrated agricultural holding, which includes Dnepromlyn LLC, Khlebzavod № 10 LLC, Orel United Elevator LLC, Orelskaya Agrofirma LLC, Agroalliance LLC, Victoria Agrofirma, Gorkiy Agrofirma LLC, Zlagoda SOOO and others.
Ristone Holdings farms 65,800 ha in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhya regions. The company is engaged in growing grains and industrial crops, cattle breeding, production and wholesale and retail trade of agricultural products, in particular, flour, bread, bakery products, etc.
The founder and head of the supervisory board of the group of companies is Vadim Nesterenko.
As reported, the managing partner of the National E-Exchange, Evgeniya Bozhko, wrote on Facebook in December this year that “Agrofirma im. Gorky” can not realize its right to privatization of Kosar distillery, because half of the storage tanks for finished products at the plant are filled with distilled spirit under arrest since 2012, which makes it impossible to alienate the asset.
Privatization of the alcohol industry involves the State Property Fund sale of 41 distilleries of State Enterprise “Ukrspirt” and another 37 plants, united in the concern “Ukrspirt”. In total, it is expected to raise about 2 billion hryvnias. In 2020, the amount of assets sold at 20 auctions was 1.26 billion UAH.
