CMS has advised a syndicate of banks (including Black Sea Trade and Development Bank) led by ING and UniCredit as mandated lead arrangers, on the extension and USD 100m increase of a pre-export credit facility to Ukraine’s Kernel Group. The total available limit under the amended facility has been increased to USD390m.

Kernel Group is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, and a leading producer and supplier of agricultural products from the Black Sea region to world markets with a land bank of 560,000 hectares. The facility will be used to fund the working capital needs of its sunflower oil production business, including storage, transportation and trans-shipment. Thanks to the facility structure Kernel Group will have the possibility to access the funds earlier than usual and also to finance purchase of raw materials in advance to facilitate production. 

The CMS team was led by Mark Segall, Partner and Head of Finance CEE/CIS with the support of a team in Kyiv consisting of Ihor Olekhov, Partner, Kateryna Chechulina, Counsel, Vyacheslav Ovechkin, Senior Associate, Khrystyna Korpan and Ivan Pshyk, (Kyiv). CMS Zurich, CMS Luxembourg and CMS Amsterdam also assisted. 

Mark Segall comments: “Since having first been made available to Kernel in 2008 this credit line has further developed and evolved. This time it involved a complex structuring to allow earlier access to funds, as well as required comprehensive advice to the parties to align the interests of all parties. We were pleased to be able to bring our strong expertise in PXF for Ukrainian agribusinesses to help everyone achieve their financial goals on time by completing the transaction in less than two months”.