Lithuania-based organic food firm Auga Group has sold shares for a total of €36 million, as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) buys an 8.7% stake in the company for €9 million.
Auga plans to invest the new funds to unlock synergies across its farming activities and diversify its product range by expanding into poultry farms, building modern dairy farms, a combined feedstock production plant and a biogas production plant, as well as moving up into value-added production by increasing its packaged organic products.
RBRD said Auga “is among the largest organic farming companies in the European Union, ensuring full traceability of raw materials, with complete process control from field to shelf”.
Auga’s product folio includes poultry, vegetables, dairy products and soups. Last year it won the best organic product award at the Gulfood Innovation Awards 2017.
Kęstutis Juščius, chair of the Auga Group management board, said: “Successful sale of all offered shares shows that investors trust Auga’s business model of clean food produced in [the] most sustainable way, planned development projects and company’s management.
“We shall continue to work with dedication towards implementation of the company’s business model, where creation of the value to its shareholders goes hand in hand with taking care of the environment, employees and society at large.”
He added: “We are glad to welcome EBRD to the company’s shareholders. We hope to gain experience from them in corporate governance, environmental and social compliance areas and strive to constantly improve in those areas by gradual introduction of best practices in the company’s operations.”
EBRD has been working in Lithuania since 1991 and to date has invested €790 million in some 85 projects. It said capital market development, the green economy and strengthening local companies are its priorities in the country today.
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