CEO: Rusagro may study market for possible SPO in 2019–2020

MOSCOW, Nov 12 (PRIME) -- Russian agricultural holding Rusagro may study the market for a possibility to make a secondary public offering (SPO) in 2019–2020 if it buys vegetable oil producer Solnechnye Produkty, CEO Maxim Basov said Monday during a conference call.

“If we make this deal (to buy Solnechnye Produkty), and if we decide to continue possible acquisitions, which we are considering as investment projects, then possibly we may test the market for SPO next year or in a year,” he said.

The possibility will be considered if the company needs a capital, he added.

In early October, Rusagro Group announced that Ros Agro Plc acquired rights to purchase controlling stake in Quartlink Holding Limited, which owns holding company Solnechnye Produkty.

Basov said that the debt of Solnechnye Produkty currently exceeds 40 billion rubles, and Rusagro is holding talks with the company’s creditors over debt restructuring.

“We have signed an option agreement to buy 85% of this company. The reason why we have not yet bought this company is that the value of this asset is unclear now, it is negative. The debt of this company exceeds 40 billion rubles, which is too much even for such a big company. We are currently working with creditors for restructuring of the debt,” he said.

“Only after restructuring of the debt the cost of the company’s capital will become positive,” he said.

Rusagro will most likely buy the debt of Solnechnye Produkty and restructure the company buying the most interesting assets. “This will be a long process. We will finance this deal with debt, and we’ve agreed with one of the banks over financing,” Basov said.

(66.8497 rubles – U.S. $1)

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