Argoton Public Limited, the largest agricultural company in Eastern Ukraine, has successfully listed global depositary receipts (GDRs) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange from a 25% private equity placement completed in October 2009.

As previously reported, Agroton raised USD 42 mln through placement of the equity stake, which was conducted through the sale of 4 mln GDRs issued by The Bank of New York Mellon at a ratio of 1:1 to company shares. The price of the offering was USD 10.50 per GDR, which implies a company market capitalization of USD 168 mln.

"We will use the proceeds from the successful placement to increase our harvested land bank by 40,000 ha, to 174,000 ha, as well as implement full-cycle poultry production," Yuriy Zhuravlev, CEO of Agroton Public Limited.

Agroton is the largest diversified and vertically integrated agricultural producer in Eastern Ukraine. Founded in 1992, the company harvests 134,000 hectares of black soil farmland in Luhansk and Kharkiv regions and operates 235,000 tonnes of elevator storage facilities. In 2008 Agroton reported revenues of USD 76 mln with EBITDA of USD 22 mln.