Ukraine chicken firm investment aims to boost flailing economy

Welcoming the IFC’s largest-ever investment in the Ukrainian agribusiness sector, the company’s founder and CEO Yuri Kosyuk said the funding would “help us continue our expansion programme despite the challenging economic environment in Ukraine”.​

Commenting, the IFC’s regional head for Ukraine and Belarus Rufat Alimardanov said that boosting Ukraine’s poultry sector was important for helping “the country realise its competitive advantages and return to economic growth”​. He stressed that Ukraine’s agribusiness sector was “a key driver for the economy”​.

The financing package includes covering US$100m in debt from the IFC’s own account and a US$75m injection through an IFC-managed co-lending portfolio programme. This is a new syndication platform, here enabling an additional US$75m to be raised from other lenders.

The IFC first invested in MHP in 2003 – the company has since grown into one of eastern Europe’s largest poultry producers, employing more than 30,000 people. It controls about half of Ukraine’s chicken market, selling about 40% of its products in Ukraine through a network of small- and medium-sized businesses and franchises.

The group grows grain to supply its fodder mills and produce feed for its two breeder farms and five chicken farms. MHP rears birds from chicks to mature birds, handling slaughter, processing and distribution with its own fleet of trucks.

Kosyuk added: “We consider IFC a long-term partner, since the early 2000s. With IFC’s support we will continue to build our regional and global competitiveness.”​

Ukraine’s food sector commands more than 40% of IFC’s current investment portfolio in the country. The World Bank arm is also implementing an advisory programme in the sector, helping to simplify business regulations, modernise supply chains, improve competitiveness and expand access to finance.