Kernel's majority shareholder to buy out only 36% of company's shares for $122.5 mln after tender results

MOSCOW. May 10 (Interfax) - Andrei Verevsky's Namsen Limited, which owns 38.05% of the shares in Ukraine's Kernel agricultural holding, 41.29% of the voting shares, and which had planned to acquire 61.95% of the company's shares from the other shareholders, will now buy out only around 36% of the shares upon the results of the tender, Ukrainian media reported, citing the statement from the authorized brokerage company, Trigon DM.

Namsen Limited will acquire 30,248,449 shares out of the 52,057,219 shares planned for redemption.

The buyback price is 18.50 Polish zloty per share, or around $4.05/share at the current exchange rate, as announced, thus the total buyout price should be about $122.5 million, with settlement scheduled for May 12.

As reported, applications for redemption were accepted from March 31 to May 4.

Kernel's shares have been trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) since 2007. Verevsky previously said that he considered the circulation of the company's shares on the exchange to be economically inefficient. Consequently, the majority shareholder forwarded the initiative to buy back shares with the subsequent delisting of Kernel from the exchange.

Kernel's Polish minority shareholders - who overall own 18,251,431 shares, or 21.7%, and have joined forces in order to protect their rights regarding the plans for the share buyback and subsequent delisting - on May 2 terminated the shareholder agreement concluded on April 12.

The group comprised 15 minority shareholders, including OFE PZU (2.03%), Uniqua OFE (1.95%), OFE NN (1.83%), Allianz Polska OFE, Aegon OFE (1.15%), and OFE Pocztylion, as well as FRAM FIZ (1.4%), and Lind Value (6.29%). The shareholders have demanded to convene a meeting in order to discuss the delisting of Kernel's shares from the WSE, with each of the parties taking decisions and/or actions independently regarding Kernel Holding SA following the termination of the agreement.

As reported, Kernel saw net profit decline 12.6% year-on-year to $370.31 million for the first half of the 2023 financial year from July-December 2022, with revenue dropping 41.3% to nearly $1.89 billion.

Kernel is the largest producer of vegetable oil in Ukraine and its exporter, and the company cultivates agricultural products and sells them.