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Ukraine poultry farm wants to go public
A Ukrainian chicken farm is pushing ahead with
an initial public offering (IPO) of stock, in what is shaping up as a test of
how seriously investors take the threat of a global bird-flu
pandemic.
Financial markets overall haven't paid much attention to the prospect of a
flu outbreak, although stocks in some other poultry companies have been hurt in
the past year.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct, known as
MHP, has hired investment banks Morgan Stanly and Renaissance Capital to help
raise about $150 million through an IPO in Kiev, and perhaps London, that could
value the whole company at more than $1 billion.
The company would be
launching shares as cases of the H5N1 avian-flu virus continue to
emerge.
MHP, which owns three large chicken farms in the Ukraine with
capacity of 10 million chickens, hasn't been affected by bird flu and hasn't
lost customers since the threat emerged. MHP, which sells chicken under the
brand Nasha Ryaba, emerged in 1995 from the wreckage of post-Soviet Ukrainian
chicken production.
Editor WorldPoultry
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