Agribusiness Kernel has sold Eurobonds worth $500 million of 8.875 percent Eurobonds in Ukraine's first corporate issue since a 2013-14 uprising and separatist conflict plunged the country into economic crisis. The Warsaw-listed Ukrainian company, the world's largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, said the placement represented a new chapter for Ukraine's debt market.
"This is a landmark transaction for Kernel and Ukraine as we have once more opened the external debt market of the country after three years of stagnation," it said in a statement.
The last bond from a Ukrainian corporate that wasn't a part of a debt restructuring was in June 2013, when UkrLandFarming issued a March 2018 bond for $75 million.
Many Ukrainian companies, including steel giant Metinvest, have been forced to restructure their debt after the conflict slowed operations and caused two years of economic recession.