Milkiland, a dairy group with assets in Ukraine, Russia and Poland has observed the conditions of restructuring of a debt to Credit Agricole Bank (Kyiv).

Milkiland said in a press release that the company finalized a deal to sell public joint-stock company Iskra and Uspikh-Mena LLC, which were under control of Milkiland-Agro LLC.

The agreement to restructure $14.456 million of the debt was signed in July 2016 by Credit Agricole Bank and subsidiary Milkiland-Ukraine, Nadiya LLC, Uspikh-Mena LLC and PJSC Iskra.

The term for returning the loan was extended to June 30, 2019. The credit rates were cut. A requirement to sell the above-mentioned companies no later than March 30, 2017 was included in the agreement. At least $4.5 million was to be paid to Credit Agricole Bank thanks to the sale of the companies.

"As the result of selling deals of PJSC Iskra and Uspikh-Mena LLC to third parties buyers, the sum of $4.854 million (EUR 4.384 million) was repaid to the creditor. Additional $511,000 (EUR 462,000) in 2016 were saved due to lowered interest expenses and also repaid to the bank. Outstanding amount of the principal sum of indebtedness to the creditor as of March 1, 2017 stood at $9.1 million (EUR 8.22 million)," Milkiland said.

"We now focus at the development of our key operational subsidiary Nadiya managing our modern milk-farm Krasnosilska," Milkiland-Agro CEO Natalia Melenevska said.

"We were happy to fulfill the conditions of the restructuring agreement with Credit Agricole Bank, one of the largest creditors of Milkiland with its share of c.9% in the total debt portfolio of the group as of March 1, 2017," Milkiland CFO Oleksandr Androschuk said.

Milkiland’s management consider this agreement as an important element of the financial stabilization of the group’s business after several hits it absorbed in 2014-2016 due to macroeconomic instability and loss of the access to the traditional export markets.