A deal of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Toronto, Canada) to acquire over 25% of shares in Astarta Holding N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) could be finished in coming three or four months.

"We received the approval from Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee a month ago. It took time to meet the conditions of the agreement, as it was to be approved with all banks creditors. This is almost finished. I think that we will finalize the deal in three or four months," majority shareholders in Astarta and its CEO Viktor Ivanchyk told reporters in Kyiv last week.

He said that business partner Valeriy Korotkov is selling his shares in the company.

"Korotkov is selling his shares to Fairfax. This is mutually beneficial deal. He has been always a financial investor. He was not deeply involved in daily operation management of the company. He left the company as a shareholder after holding the company's shares for around 10 years," he said.

Ivanchyk thanked Korotkov for his contribution into the company's development.

As reported, on August 24, 2016, Fairfax signed the agreement with the companies of the founders of Astarta Viktor Ivanchyk - Albacon Ventures Ltd. – and Valeriy Korotkov - Aluxes Holding Ltd. Albacon held 37.8% (9.45 million shares) and Aluxes– 25.99% (6.497 million shares) in Astarta.

Fairfax shall acquire 450,000 of shares from Albacon and 2.048 million shares from Aluxes.

Fairfax shall also have the right to acquire from Aluxes an additional 4.449 million shares in Astarta.

Fairfax shall have the right to acquire from Aluxes an additional 2.498 million shares in the company, representing approximately 9.99% of the voting rights in the company which can only be exercised 61 days after the sale of shares (First Tranche Call Option).

Fairfax shall have also the right to acquire from Aluxes a further 1.952 million shares in the company, representing approximately 7.8% of the voting rights in the company, which can only be exercised after the 61st day after acquisition of shares.

Aluxes also has the right to put the above shares to Fairfax should Fairfax not exercise its rights above.

In addition, Albacon has granted a tag along right to Fairfax in case Albacon sells a certain percentage of its shares in the company to a third party.

Furthermore Fairfax has been granted the right to nominate the chairman of the board. In addition, Astarta has agreed that the company shall agree some issues concerning shares with Fairfax.

Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares and dairy farms. The holding also has a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).