Talis continues investment effort in CEE agriculture

The $66m investment is composed of debt and equity, with an additional $20m injection planned in Q4 to pay off the debt.

Cygnet Agro is wholly owned by Goldcrest Agroholding, a Jersey-based company focused on agriculture in Ukraine. The new capital helped the company consolidate 37,500ha of land, 25,600ha in Vinnitsa/Zhitomir and 11,900ha in Khmelnitsky. Around 95% of the new land can be cultivated immediately.

For 2012, Cygnet is targeting to harvest 130,000t of crop at a profit of $9m.

Talis, formerly known as Finch Invest, acts as an investment adviser to high-net-worth individuals and family offices. The firm has strong ties to Central and Eastern Europe and believes in nurturing the underdeveloped agriculture infrastructure there. It previously worked with the Cygnet management on the investment in Enselco Agro, which was sold in September 2011 for $60m, returning 2x cash after a holding period of just two years.

The deal was led by Vasile Foca and Matus Maar, directors and co-founders of Talis. Igor Shylyuk is CEO of Cygnet.

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• Topics
• CEE
• Talis Capital