By KYIV. May 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Namsen Limited, owned by the head of the board of directors of Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agricultural holdings, Andriy Verevsky, and owning 38.05% of the shares of the agricultural holding circulating on the market, acquired another 36% following a tender announced on March 30 to buy back all the remaining shares.
Kernel said on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, on May 12, some 30,248,449 shares were bought out of the declared 52,057,219 shares by Namsen, as a result of which the stake owned by the company reached 62,222,460 shares, or 74.05%.
The company clarified that, taking into account treasury shares, the bought back stake corresponded to about 39% of the votes, and the concentrated Namsen stake now gives 80.36% of the votes in the company.
The buyback price was PLN 18.5 per share (about $4.47 at the current exchange rate), as stated, which brings the total buyback price to about $136.1 million.
Sales orders were accepted from March 31 to May 4.
United in order to protect their interests, 15 Polish financial investors – the minority shareholders of the Kernel agricultural holding, who controlled a total of 18,251,431, or 21.72%, of its shares, on May 2 terminated the shareholder agreement concluded on April 12. At the same time, the largest of these minority shareholders Lind Value with a share of more than 5% reported its sale during the buyback.
Before the war, Kernel ranked first in the world in the production of sunflower oil (about 7% of world production) and its export (about 12%), and was also the largest producer and seller of bottled sunflower oil in Ukraine. In addition, the company was engaged in the cultivation of other agricultural products and their sale.
