On April 17, 2012, the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business (UCAB) hosted the III Business Forum entitled "Ukrainian Agricultural Companies Successfully Entering International Stock Markets: Theory and Practice".

At the event, Ukrainian farmers received comprehensive information about the possibilities of attract-ing foreign investment and the reality of Ukrainian commercial farming units entering the external markets delivered directly by representatives of leading investment and law firms. In general, the Business Forum was attended by more than one hundred representatives of domestic and foreign agricultural companies.

Alexander Borodkin, a counsellor with real estate and land practice of Vasil Kisil & Partners law firm, presented at the conference.

The growth of agricultural companies' capitalization opens new perspectives for Ukrainian farmers with respect to attracting investments. In addition, lately there are more and more opportunities to raise funds not only for large-scale commercial farms, but also for mid-level companies with the land bank of up to 50,000 hectares and an annual turnover of ~ 50 million U.S. dollars. If the first investors were interested only in large diversified companies, today they are also attracted to the dynamic growth, which they are willing to financially support.

According to the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business, during 2010-2011 Ukrainian agrarian enter-prises attracted investments totalling nearly U.S. $ 1.5 billion. However, their prospects and intentions are not always supported by favourable conditions and are often delayed indefinitely because of the reluctance of investors to take risks.

In his speech Alexander Borodkin said that the current law created an extremely difficult environment for investors and, above all, for those agricultural companies seeking to attract financing. In particular, regulation of land relations in Ukraine is now at the stage of a large-scale reform. The need to pull the plug on land moratorium and to enter a civilized land market in Ukraine has been long over-due, but the legislator still cannot come up with the terms of how this market ought to function and fails to find a consensus with agricultural producers.

Meanwhile, the introduction of a new system of the State Land Cadastre along with the system of registration of real estate titles and their limitations are also being delayed. The entry into action of the corresponding laws is postponed to early next year. Obviously, it is expected that until then, the legislator would make up its mind regarding the land market regulation. However, given the scale of the 2012 nation-wide events such as the football championship Euro 2012 and parliamentary elections, the ability of the Parliament to mobilize itself and find time for farmers remains questionable.

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About the Firm

Established in 1992, Vasil Kisil & Partners is a Ukrainian law firm that delivers integrated legal advice in banking & finance, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, antitrust, competition and trade, dispute resolution, tax law, energy and natural resources law, intellectual property law, labor and employment law, real estate and construction law, as well as PPP, concessions and infrastructure law.

The firm`s clients include such world-known companies as Alpcot Agro, Africa-Israel Group, Astellas Pharma, BASF, Bayer Consumer, BNP Paribas, British American Tobacco, Central European Media Enterprises, Coca Cola, Credit Agricole Group, Danone, Dell Inc., Du Pont, Energy Standard Group, Eurosport, Google, IKB Deutsche Industriebank, LG Electronics, Leroy Merlin Ukraine, Lukoil, Metso Automation Oy, Moody’s, Mott MacDonald Limited, NCH Capital, Novacke chemicke zavody, Opel, Philips, Pioneer, Red Bull, Russian Standard Bank, St. Sophia Homes, SEB AB, SEB Group, Swedbank AB, Seven Hills, Shell, Standard Charted Bank, Tchibo, UniCredit Group, Vanco International / Vanco Energy, Volkswagen, VympelCom, YouTube.