Ovostar majority shareholders consolidate 95.45%, are buying remaining shares

MOSCOW. April 23 (Interfax) - Ovostar Union majority shareholders CEO Boris Belikov and member of the board of directors Vitaly Veresenko, together with the Canadian financial company Fairfax Financial Holdings, have accumulated 95.45% of the agricultural holding's shares and decided to buy the remaining 4.55% at PLN 70 or $17.29 per share at the current rate.

Ukrainian media reported, quoting an Ovostar filing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, that a total of 273,066 shares were expected to be purchased in a deal brokered by Polish company Ipopema Securities.

The announcement of the buyout boosted Ovostar's share price by 8.56% to PLN 71.

Prime One Capital Limited (Cyprus), which is controlled by Belikov and Veresenko, owns 65.93% of Ovostar's shares.

Ovostar is a vertically integrated group that is one of Ukraine's leading producers of chicken eggs and egg products. The group's holding company, Ovostar Union N.V. carried out an IPO for 25% of its shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in June 2011, raising $33.05 million.

Ovostar boosted net profit 12.2-fold year-on-year in January-September 2023 to $29.08 million. Revenue grew 36.3% to $123.06 million thanks largely to higher prices for the company's products.

Another large Ukrainian agricultural holding, Kernel, as well as its majority shareholder and chairman of the board of directors, Andrei Verevsky, said last year they intended to delist from the Warsaw Stock Exchange. However, it has not yet been possible to consolidate the 95% of shares required for this with the process delayed by resistance from minority shareholders, some of whom went to court.