Swedish investment firm Kinnevik has completed a cash sale of its Polish agricultural business Rolnyvik for more than 400 million krona ($46 million; €43 million).
The firm said Rolnyvik’s sale, which includes wheat, barley and sugar beet plantations on its 6,700 hectares of farmland, was fair. Kinnevik valued the business at 250 million krona on its own books in September.
The divestment follows the management buyout of Kinnevik’s agricultural consultancy and subsidiary KinnAgri at the beginning of this year, as Agri Investor reported. The consultancy, which was renamed Terravost and continues to focus on agribusiness, handled the sale.
Kinnevik first incorporated the Rolnyvik farm in its portfolio in 2001. Since then, Polish land values have steadily increased, boosted by the country’s accession to the European Union in 2004.
The firm had indicated its intentions to sell Rolnyvik in 2013, when Kinnevik’s KinnAgri, who were also handling the planned sale at that time, emphasised the quality of the farm’s storage and infrastructural facilities. KinnAgri’s then-chief executive David Cousins, who is still at Terravost, suggested to Agrimoney that the firm was selling to seek other opportunities further east.
Kinnevik’s director of investor relations Torun Litzén told Agri Investor: “Kinnevik’s focus is on building digital consumer businesses and the sale of Rolnyvik was another step in executing on our strategy of focusing our portfolio.”
Litzén added that the firm was still the largest owner in Black Earth Farming, which she said was valued at 151 million krona on Kinnevik’s books in September.  Kinnevik was one of the first two foreign firms to finance the Russian company, which controls 271,000 hectares of land about 100km from the Ukrainian border.
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