EBRD to issue $100 mln loan to Ukrainian agricultural holding

MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a loan of $100 million to MHP Food Trading LLC, a subsidiary of major Ukrainian agricultural holding MHP Group, to enable sufficient financing to cover the procurement and accumulation of sunflower seeds and sunflower oil production.

The loan was approved on December 14, 2022 and the details of the deal were published on February 20, 2023, Ukrainian media said, citing the EBRD website.

The project includes financing of up to $90 million equivalent for the EBRD's account and up to $10 million for the account of participants, it said.

The project comprises financing of MHP's seasonal working capital needs for its edible oil crushing segment in Ukraine, it said. The main objective of the loan is to enable sufficient financing to cover the procurement and accumulation of sunflower seeds for crushing into oil for subsequent export from Ukraine. The provision of the loan is expected to help increase MHP's resilience.

MHP Group operates three sunflower crushing plants in Ukraine. MHP Food Trading LLC is an MHP Group subsidiary, incorporated in the United Arab Emirates, and is the group's trading arm for sunflower oil produced by Ukrainian companies of the group. The borrower will channel the loan proceeds down to MHP's subsidiaries in Ukraine to purchase sunflower seeds for further processing into sunflower oil for export, the EBRD said.

MHP Group is one of the leading poultry producers in Ukraine. It also produces grain, sunflower oil and meat processing products. MHP exports refrigerated chicken halves, including those processed at its enterprises in the Netherlands and Slovakia, to the European market. In February 2019, the agricultural holding finalized the deal to acquire Slovenia's Perutnina Ptuj.

MHP Group sells its products under the brands Nasha Ryaba, Appetitna, Lehko!, Baschinsky, LaStrava, Skott Smeat, RyabChick, Ukrainian Chicken, Qauliko, Sultanah, Assilah, as well as via the Myasomarket franchise chain of stores and the Doner Market food street points.

MHP Group posted net revenue of $393 million in 2021 against the $133 million net loss in 2020. At the same time, its proceeds rose 25% to $2.37 billion.

MHP Group's founder, majority shareholder and CEO is Ukrainian businessman Yury Kosyuk.