April 15, 2011
 

AgroGeneration to increase cultivated land area in Ukraine

The Paris-based agricultural company AgroGeneration focusing on grain and oilseed output plans to enlarge its farmed land area in Ukraine to 100,000 hectares; an increase of 50,000 hectares by the end of 2012, said Charles Beigbeder, the company's president, on April 5.

"Now we have achieved a balance, although this was a very hard problem for us. It is difficult to work in Ukraine. In addition, a large-scale drought hit last year. However, the plans to lease lands in Ukraine or buy agricultural enterprises and increase the overall area to 100,000 hectares remain unchanged," he marked.

Supposedly, AgroGeneration previously agreed preliminary contracts on purchase of a few Ukrainian farming enterprises.

Founded in 2007, AgroGeneration owns the Ukraine-based company Vinal, whose three farms farm over 25,000 hectares in Western Ukraine. The company also controls three big farming companies in Hlukhiv, Chudnov and Zbarazh with a total land bank of more than 20,000 hectares.

In 2010, AgroGeneration raised output 3.7 times to EUR20 million (US$29 million). Its selling prices have risen by an average of 70% for the year to EUR167/tonne (US$242).

The French company raised EUR12 million (US$17.4 million) in the course of the private placement on the NYSE Euronext Exchange in early 2010 and a further EUR2.5 million (US$3.6 million) in May. The share price was EUR1.80 (US$2.60) and capitalisation reached EUR47.6 million (US$69 million) when the first placement was done.