Dragon Capital Advises Svarog West Group on Asset Sales to Epicentr K
The deal comprised the assets of Svarog West Group in the Khmelnytsky and Zhytomyr regions including 47 thousand hectares of land, 6 elevators with simultaneous storage capacity of 160 thousand tons, a modern seed plant, and 5 dairy farms with 3,000 head of cattle (including 2 modern high-tech complexes).
In addition to the "solid" assets, the buyer received a modern technological platform for accounting and monitoring agricultural operations, which was developed by an internal team of Svarog West Group IT specialists. These assets will enlarge Epicentr's agribusiness in this region.
Natalia Cherep, Strategic Planning and Development Director and M&A Project Manager at Svarog West Group, said, “Svarog West Group owners have actively invested in the company for 15 years and managed to build an efficient technological farming business, consolidating the best personnel in the region and high-quality land bank, supplemented with all necessary elements of infrastructure for modern agricultural production. We believe that the merger of its assets in the Khmelnytsky region will be a powerful platform for Epicentr K to become a successful player in the global agricultural market."
"The deal process was relatively long and difficult in commercial terms, but the teams on both sides did a great job to ensure that the integration process took place with minimal stress for the business, staff and land lessors. As a result, Epicentr managed to effectively handle spring sowing works at the acquired assets despite instability caused by domestic quarantine measures," said Yuri Astakhov, Director of Investment Banking at Dragon Capital, who oversaw the deal.
Following this deal, Svarog West Group will focus on managing its agricultural assets in the Chernivtsi region including 15,000 hectares of land for crop production, modern horticulture, and dairy farming. In particular, the company has already completed spring crop plantings.
The company's shareholders and management continue to explore strategic options for further development.
Svarog West Group is a high-tech agricultural company with a 15-year track record. At the time of the deal, the corporation managed various farming enterprises (crop, livestock, horticulture) in the Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi and Zhytomyr.
Epicentr K is a group of companies that combines a network of shopping centers and agricultural assets. Epicentr Agro is one of the top-10 agricultural holding companies in Ukraine, operating 160,000 hectares of land in the Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions. In addition to crop production, it manages livestock complexes, two seed plants and elevators with total simultaneous storage capacity of over 1 million tons.
Dragon Capital is Ukraine’s leading investment bank offering a comprehensive range of services in equities and fixed income sales, trading and research, investment banking, private equity and asset management to institutional, corporate and private clients. The company was established in 2000.