BELGRADE (Serbia), February 7 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Tuesday it has exited its equity investment in Agri Europe, a Cyprus-based catch-all vehicle for the agricultural assets of Serbian conglomerate MK Group.
"After our exit we will remain in close contact and review selected investment proposals which meet the EBRD’s strategy and transition objectives for the sector and the region with the aim to successfully cooperate on new projects, hopefully in the near future,” EBRD regional head of agribusiness Miljan Zdrale said, as quoted in a statement by the lender on Tuesday.
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“Our equity partnership, cooperation and involvement has produced rewarding results for all parties. The EBRD’s continuous engagement with the majority shareholder and the company’s management has led to significant improvements in the governance structure, including the functioning of the supervisory and management boards," Zdrale added.
Agri Europe is one of the largest vertically-integrated agribusiness companies in Southeastern Europe (SEE). The company consolidates Serbian producer and trader of agricultural commodities MK Group, meat producer Carnex, sugar maker Sunoko and Ukrainian agricultural production firm AgroInvest.
"We believe that together we found a proper balance between the relevant expertise of the EBRD and the vision and entrepreneurship of the company. This has been key to the successful cooperation to the present day and we will nurture it in the future as well. In that sense, it can be said that the first phase of cooperation has now finished and we are ready more than ever to move forward to the next phase with some larger and possibly more challenging projects,” Agri Europe president Miodrag Kostic said in the statement.
The EBRD became a shareholder in Agri Europe with a 7% stake in 2013 through a 50 million euro ($53.4 million) investment to support the expansion of its farming and meat processing operations through investment in silo infrastructure, agriculture equipment and working capital financing.
Prior to its equity investment, the bank supported the client’s primary agriculture operations in Ukraine with a $7 million loan in 2007. The EBRD also arranged the client’s first syndicated loan with international banks worth 80 million euro after the global financial crisis.
($ = 0.9368 euro)