The investment company UMG Investments from SCM Group of Rinat Akhmetov has received a mandate to carry out two or three investments annually of up to $10 million each as a minority partner, SCM Head Oleh Popov has said.
“UMG Investments is ready for any partnerships – they have a mandate to enter projects as minority shareholders, and make investments up to $10 million … per transaction. They should bring 2-3 such transactions per year,” he said in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda.
According to Popov, the main criteria are potential and innovativeness, but SCM has expectations for the return of these investments, but he did not specify the minimum profitability.
The head of the group recalled that in addition to new third-party projects, UMG Investments, headed by Andriy Gorokhov and Nadiya Kaznacheyeva, is also looking for additional projects with high profitability at all SCM industrial assets, including waste treatment.
As an example of implemented investments, Popov named the production of protein feed additives for animals Feednova with partners from the Effective Investments group of companies and Dutch-based Mada Participations B.V., the Ukrainian Mineral Fertilizers enterprise for the production of ammonium sulfate, projects for the coherent utilization of coal mine methane and the construction of a grain terminal.
As reported, at the end of March this year, Gorokhov confirmed the strategic plans for further investment in Ukraine, estimating the volume of UMG Investments’ investments at over $40 million annually.
UMG Investments, owned by the SCM Group, has completed four merger and acquisition (M&A) deals since April this year, Investment Director Nadiia Kaznacheieva said at the CFO Forum 2020 held in Kyiv this week.
“We believe in this country, in the business where we work, and we continue investing. Since April, we have completed four M&A deals and opened two new businesses built from scratch,” she said.
Kaznacheieva said that the first such enterprise is the Ukrainian Mineral Fertilizers plant in Kryvy Rih, and the second, of a smaller scale, is the utilization of coal mine methane.
According to her, two projects were carried out in the mining segment, in which the company invests as a strategic investor, but these transactions are not public and are not disclosed.
Another investment was the purchase of a minority stake in Feednova, which is implementing a project to build a plant for the production of high-protein feed additives and animal fats in Busk (Lviv region), the investment director said.
“The importance of a domestic investor is sometimes underestimated. If domestic investors do not invest, it is difficult to expect the arrival of international investors,” Kaznacheieva said.
She added that in the context of the coronavirus epidemic, when even physical movement is limited, attracting foreign investors is even more difficult. “Now is the time of our, local investors, there is money in Ukraine,” the investment director said.
Speaking about the business of UMG Investments and its approaches to investment, Kaznacheieva said that the company operates as a private equity fund, and expects high returns from projects – IRR 25% and higher.
“What are the criteria, where we invest – industries that are growing and which, most importantly, will grow. Unlike Horizon Capital we don’t invest in FMCG. We have a different view of projects: more focused on B2B and export or import substitution,” Kaznacheieva said.
According to her, the white clay mining business from the assets of UMG Investments (VESCO) is the second largest such business in the world. “We will work further, and I believe that we will be number one in the world,” the investment director said.
She said that among the portfolio companies there is also the largest operator for the processing of waste and by-products.
Recycling Solutions from the portfolio of the UMG Investments of the SCM Group has announced the opening of the Ukrainian Mineral Fertilizers complex, the main product of which is nitrogen-sulfur and multiple-nutrient fertilizers based on ammonium sulfate, in the city of Kryvy Rih, where over $11 million was invested.
“We planned and built the complex from scratch. The total investment amounted to more than $11 million. The company created 72 jobs,” UMG Investments CEO Andriy Gorokhov said in a press release on Tuesday.
According to the press release, the production capacities of the new manufacturer, operating with compacting technology, make it possible to provide Ukrainian farmers with up to 100,000 tonnes of finished products every year. The complex has new equipment from the Japanese-German holding Hosokawa Alpine.
The CEO of UMG Investments reminded that this is the second project of the processing portfolio this year: in March it was announced that it had entered into an agreement with Ihor Liska’s Effective Investments company to acquire a minority stake in Feednova, a new enterprise for the production of high-protein feed additives for agricultural and domestic animals. Now the company has already begun the process of placing equipment of the first stage at the construction site, and the project is planned to be completed by the end of 2020.
“We are planning further investments in recycling and are now looking for partners and considering appropriate projects for plastic recycling,” Gorokhov said.
Recycling Solutions is a Ukrainian company managing by-products and waste for the coal, metallurgical, thermal power and agricultural industries of Ukraine. Its areas of operation is processing and sale of ash and slag materials, smelter slag, rare and industrial gases, ammonium sulfate, animal by-products; production of heat and electricity from coal mine methane.
CEO of Recycling Solutions Dmytro Anufriev said that for many years crystalline ammonium sulfate – a valuable by-product of the metallurgical industry that can be turned into fertilizers – was exported for processing to countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria or Serbia, and then imported after processing back to Ukraine.
“Recycling Solutions has set up a local production facility in Kryvy Rih for processing crystalline ammonium sulfate into a ready-to-use granular product,” Anufriev said.
In the first half of 2020, Recycling Solutions sold more than 825,000 tonnes and 455,000 cubic meters of waste and by-products of domestic enterprises. The company received UAH 343.1 million of gross income and invested UAH 12.2 million in the creation of new processing enterprises, according to the release.
The company said in the press release that since its foundation, Recycling Solutions has attracted more than $15 million of investment in business development and the introduction of recycling technologies. The company employs over 220 people.
UMG Investments starts and develops businesses with high growth potential.
UMG Investments, which combines the mineral extraction and processing assets of SCM financial and industrial group, has acquired a minor stake in Feednova, which is implementing a project to build a plant for the production of high protein feed additives and animal fat in Busk (Lviv region), according to a Feednova press release.
“We, as a local investor, understand that without new projects, without creating jobs and supporting business processes in portfolio companies, there will be no rapid economic recovery after overcoming the pandemic. We keep moving along all the previously agreed investment projects, and we are glad that our investment in Feednova helps create the first independent livestock by-product processing operator in Ukraine,” UMG Investments CEO Andriy Horokhov said.
Feednova said the financial details of this agreement were not disclosed.
Feednova is expected to process raw materials from external suppliers to produce feed additives and animal fat for farm and domestic animals. It is planned that the complex will have four production lines and five boilers (Mavitec, the Netherlands) with a capacity of more than 220 tonnes of raw materials and 90 tonnes of finished products per day. It is expected that up to 100 jobs will be created.
UMG Investments is an investment company with a focus on developing business in the raw materials and processing sectors. It was founded in 2006 by SCM Group. UMG Investments manages portfolio companies in the following sectors: mining, management of by-products and industrial waste, industrial goods and services. The market value of the assets managed by the company exceeds $500 million.
UMG Holding Limited investment company, controlled by SCM Group, intends in July 2019 to launch production of granular ammonium sulphate worth more than UAH 200 million at Kryvy Rih Central Mining Equipment Repair Plant.
“We are at the design stage, after that the construction of the complex will begin, its launch is scheduled for July next year … The volume of investments will exceed UAH 200 million. Using this money, a complex will be built that is capable of handling 100,000 tonnes of ammonium sulphate per year. This is about four wagons per day. As for taxes, we expect that payments to the budgets of different levels will amount to UAH 60 million per year,” Oleksiy Afanasyev, the director general of Ukrainian Mineral Fertilizers LLC, said in the Theme of the Day program on the channel First City Channel. Kryvy Rih (1tv.kr.ua).
He said the building, which is supposed to be built, was purchased by Ukrainian Mineral Fertilizers. Some 74 new jobs will be created at the workplace.
According to the unified state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the founders of Ukrainian Mineral Fertilizers LLC are UMG Holding Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) and businessman Rinat Akhmetov.
The enterprise is engaged in wholesale trade in chemical products. It is registered on September 12, 2017.
