International law firm CMS has advised a syndicate of banks led by ING Bank N.V. as mandated lead arranger in relation to the extension of the pre-export facility for Ukraine’s Kernel Group. The total amount of the credit facility is USD300 million.
Kernel Group is the world’s leading and the largest in Ukraine producer and exporter of sunflower oil, and major supplier of agricultural products from the Black Sea region to world markets. The company exports its products into more than 80 countries.
CMS advised on the overall structure of the facility and the addition of a Ukrainian entity as a co-borrower to enable simpler and quicker access to the facility proceeds by Kernel Group. This is an innovative structure for Ukraine and it became possible as a result of gradual liberalisation of currency controls in the country since early-2019. The new structure of the facility also allows specific lenders to re-join the facility at a later stage thereby providing Kernel Group with flexibility to access additional funding in the future.
The CMS team was led by partner Elitsa Ivanova and counsel Kateryna Chechulina and included partner Ihor Olekhov, counsel Kateryna Chechulina, associate Khrystyna Korpan and lawyer Ivan Pshyk, as well as CMS lawyers in Zurich, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Vienna.
Kateryna Chechulina comments: “Despite unexpected circumstances that added more complexity to the transaction and affected its timing, we are pleased to have been able to assist our long-standing client ING Bank and complete this deal successfully.”
Ihor Olekhov adds: “CMS has built a strong track record advising banks in the agricultural sector and continues to support clients to ensure continuity of operations and supply of food products while navigating the ongoing impact of the pandemic. Interestingly, we have managed to do this innovative transaction seamlessly and efficiently while our CMS team across six jurisdictions of Europe were working mostly from home.”
