KYIV, 13 JULY 2017. EY Ukraine acted as an exclusive financial and legal advisor to MK Group, a large international diversified holding with EUR 1b annual turnover specializing in agriculture, banking and hotel businesses in Central Europe, in connection with the disposal of agricultural assets in Ukraine.

EY efforts facilitated the acquisition by one of Kernel’s subsidiaries of 100% interest in MK Group Ukraine’s farming business. The transaction services included search of a potential buyer with the most competitive offer, pre-transaction legal restructuring of the sale assets, deal structuring, preparation of transaction documents, negotiations, and deal signing and closing support. 

According to publicly available information, total consideration of USD 43.3m has been paid in cash for the 100% interest in the business, which has a positive net working capital less net debt in excess of

USD 4m., cultivates more than 27,500 hectares of leasehold farmland and has over 170,000 tons of grain storage capacity in Central Ukraine.

This transaction re-enforced continuous interest of largest players in Ukraine’s agriculture – the dynamic and investment-attractive industry in the country for post 2008-crisis period – to expand heavily and strengthen their leading positions.

EY M&A project team was led by Mykola Korol, Associate Director, Transaction Advisory Services. EY legal team was led by Bogdan Malnev, Senior Associate, under the supervision of Albert Sych, Partner, and with significant support from Vitalii Pustovyi, Associate.

“This landmark transaction in Ukraine’s agriculture industry manifests and strengthens EY’s dominant position as an M&A advisory house in Ukraine, with 7 successfully closed deals originated and executed by our M&A team, and 16 deals fully serviced by our legal team during last one and a half years. Our clients are particularly happy having EY as a single advisor for both M&A advisory and legal support, where they benefit from fully integrated approach to servicing the deal with seamless cooperation between the teams,” commented Mykola Korol, Associate Director, Transaction Advisory Services, EY Ukraine.

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