Agrowill Group expecting to overcome crisis by coordinating financial issues with all partners

Given an extremely unfavourable situation in the agricultural market as a result of a drop in milk and grain prices as well as a credit freeze by banks, agricultural company Agrowill Group is looking for new ways to overcome the consequences of the crisis and develop its activities.

“Today, survival has become a challenge for many companies. Search for new ways to develop activities is an even bigger challenge. Nearly all listed Lithuanian companies have suffered operating losses as a result of stagnation in global markets, financing problems and a slump in consumption in 2008. The situation in the Lithuanian agricultural market is even worse. Milk and grain prices have reached the bottom,” Mindaugas Juozaitis, General Manager of Agrowill Group, described the situation.

In his words, Agrowill Group was forced to replace its intensive development strategy with improvement of the efficiency of its activities. It is quite a difficult task for an agricultural company, as product prices have dropped and financing has been disturbed.

Therefore, Agrowill Group, which controls some LTL 350 million worth of assets, has encountered short-term financing difficulties.

“Today, we are looking for ways to solve the short-term financing issue. We are consulting all our partners:  banks, suppliers and bond buyers. We have already reached agreements acceptable to both parties with nearly all lenders of the company. They understand the complicated economic situation. Nearly all banks are considering possibilities to defer the payment of loans. This facilitates boosting of production efficiency and ensuring of positive financial flows,” Juozaitis said.

In his words, understanding from the majority of bond holders regarding the necessary extension of the bond agreement provided significant support. The remaining bond holders will be offered individual payment schedules. Funds received for the bonds have been allocated for the company’s development and modernisation of production. Agrowill Group bond holders largely understand the encountered difficulties and see future possibilities of the company that has become the largest agricultural company in the European Union in terms of the area of land controlled.

According to the General Manager of Agrowill Group, investment bank GILD Bankers provides consultations to the Group. Financial advisers offer strategic solutions as to what else, in addition to the current actions by Agrowill Group management, should be done under the crisis conditions in order to retain the created base and discover new sources of development.

The head of Agrowill Group named newly discovered international markets as one of the major current achievements:  the Lithuanian agricultural company is negotiating entry into new export markets with Lithuanian milk powder and other dairy products. Juozaitis hopes that products made of milk produced by Agrowill Group will be sold in Kazakh, Azerbaijani and some African markets as soon as this year.

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