Ukrainian agro-group Svarog looks ahead to IPO
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax) - Major Ukrainian agricultural corporation Svarog West Group plans to go public with an IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
"We will be technically ready to conduct the IPO by the fall of 2012, but whether the stock market will be attractive at that moment only time will tell," corporation chief Andrei Hordiychuk told Interfax.
The company is orienting itself toward the Warsaw exchange because "it is more flexible as regards Ukrainian agrarian business," he said.
The corporation is looking not only at an IPO, but also at a private offering, Hordiychuk said.
"We plan to sell from 10% to 30% of shares exclusively for the development of the company itself and the development of directions, specifically the building of modern dairy complexes and the advancement of the crop-growing sector," he said.
With the aim of increasing its attractiveness to foreign investors, Svarog West Group, together with Deloitte & Touche, is doing "juridical restructuring" and introducing reporting and control systems meeting international standards.
Svarog West Group has been operating in Ukraine since 2003. It has 26 enterprises, with its assets located in Khmelnytsky and Chernivitsi Regions. The company is involved in dairy and meat farming, crop-growing, producing fruits and vegetables, and has large grain and vegetable storage facilities. It has 13,000 head of cattle, of which 4,000 are milk cows. It also works 75,000 hectares of land.