OREANDA-NEWS. August 26, 2010. Avangard Agroholding (LSE: AVGR LI) plans to place USD 200-250 mln in Eurobonds in September-October 2010 to refinance its outstanding debt, said principal shareholder Oleg Bakhmatyuk in an interview cited by Bloomberg. Yesterday Fitch assigned a long-term B rating to Avangard.

Concorde Capital: we see a high probability of the company conducting the placement given its solid performance in 1H10. Avangard’s net debt totaled USD 162.4 mln (-78% y-o-y) as of June 30, 2010, which corresponds to a forecasted net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.1x for FY10E. Since placement proceeds will mostly be used for debt refinancing, this should not significantly affect AVGR’s financial leverage but should help decrease its financing costs, as Avangard’s long-term UAH-denominated cost of debt stood out at an expensive 14-23% p.a. as of June 30. In our view, Bakhmatyuk’s expectations to close placement in September-October might signal investor interest while the new Fitch rating additionally supports a high likelihood of its success.