About us
HISTORY
Trigon Agri (the ‘Group’) was established in May 2006 by the asset - and private equity management company Trigon Capital. The original investors to the Group committed EUR 19.6 million as start-up equity capital, with the money coming, other than from Trigon Capital, primarily from Finnish high net worth individuals. Up until today, Trigon Capital as the founding shareholder remains the largest single shareholder in the Group with a significant minority position and its wholly-owned subsidiary Trigon Agri Advisors provides management services to the Group.
With the start-up capital raised, the Group made its first investments into farming companies in 2006, acquiring the first cereal farming operations in the Eastern part of Ukraine nearby the city of Kharkov. These acquisitions marked the establishment of the first production cluster of the Group. In parallel, during the same year, the Group completed two acquisitions of dairy farms in Estonia and started a green-field dairy farming project in Russia nearby St Petersburg.
On May 17, 2007, Trigon Agri completed a private placing of shares to institutional investors and high net worth individuals in several European Union member states and in the United States securing an additional EUR 50 million for financing the development of its activities. Following the private placing, the Group’s shares were listed on the NasdaqOMX First North alternative stock exchange in Stockholm on May 18, 2007.
With the capital raised in 2007, the Group continued the expansion of its cereals farming in Kharkov and made the first investments into rail-road connected large storage facilities (elevators) pursuing its strategy of building an integrated production, storage and trading operation. During the first quarter of 2008, the Group also established a second production cluster nearby the city of Kirovograd in Ukraine, and two further clusters nearby the cities of Samara and Penza in Russia. Having set up operations in three additional cereals production clusters in the Black Earth region, the Group had by the middle of 2008 established a strong platform for cereals production, storage and trading through-out the Black Earth regions of Ukraine and Russia.
On April 7, 2008, Trigon Agri entered into an agreement with Ramburs Group (Kiev), a leading Ukrainian commodities trading group, for the establishment of the joint venture company Ramburs Trigon. The joint venture, with its head-office based in Kiev, is responsible for all sales and trading activities of the Group and for the management of the cereals storage operations of the Group.
On May 6, 2008 Trigon Agri completed a further follow-on capital raising of EUR 105 million to fund the expansion of its operations in the Black Earth regions of Ukraine and Russia. Credit Suisse and SEB Enskilda acted as Joint Bookrunners of the offering. The funds raised from the placing have been earmarked for financing the investment programmes of the Group in its existing production clusters.
In July 2009 Trigon Agri signed an agreement for acquisition of a new operational cluster in Stavropol region of Russia. This is the Group's fifth production cluster in the Black Earth region. The transaction was successfully closed in October 2009.
STRATEGY
Focus on large-scale farming clusters
The Group generally seeks to develop farming operations and agricultural land within small geographical areas (building up land concentration around grain storage capacity within a geographical range of up to approximately 150 kilometres) to form large cereal farming clusters of between 40,000 and 100,000 hectares, a size which justifies significant investment and realises managerial efficiency. The Group expects to build up its clusters in the vicinity of larger regional cities, which allows for the recruitment and retention of high quality employees for cluster level management.
Develop integrated commodities production and trading operations
The Group’s strategy is to acquire grain storage elevators with storage capacity to support the production and trading activities of the Group. The Ramburs Trigon joint venture is responsible for developing the local and international trading activities of the Group. By establishing integrated commodities operations ranging from cereals farming to storage and trading activities Trigon Agri aims to maximize the profit potential through-out the value chain.
MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT WITH TRIGON AGRI ADVISORS
A/S Trigon Agri is managed under a management agreement with Trigon Agri Advisors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trigon Capital group. For further information on Trigon Capital, please refer to http://www.trigoncapital.com/.