March 2020 – Kinstellar has advised First Farms, a leading investor in agriculture in Eastern Europe, on the acquisition of a significant amount of agricultural land from NCH Capital, one of the largest owners of agricultural land in Romania.

Denmark-based First Farms is a public limited company that invests in agriculture and land in Eastern Europe.

NCH Capital is a USD 3 billion private equity firm based in New York and is an active investor in Eastern Europe, with agricultural land and portfolios in Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Bulgaria.

The Kinstellar team was coordinated by Răzvan Popa, Partner, and included, among others, Ștefăniță Georgescu, Senior Associate, and Ana-Maria Mustățea, Associate.

Răzvan Popa explains:

Kinstellar's M&A team in Romania has a well-established track record when it comes to the agriculture and forestry sectors.

We have acted on behalf of leading agricultural companies on some of the largest transactions in Romania and continue to work for sector leaders on similar matters.

Some of the most recent transactions in agriculture include advising:

• BriseGroup on an agreement with CEE Equity Partners regarding the modernisation and development of its grain silos and logistics hubs, with BriseGroup thus becoming a valued grain origination client of the first agriculture infrastructure platform in Romania, Bristol Logistics (the deal was awarded as the most important transaction in the agriculture sector in Romania in 2019).

• Agricost on the sale of the largest grain farm in Europe (over 56,000 hectares) to Al Dahra Group, a leading agribusiness group based in the United Arab Emirates. The deal was praised by the media as the largest transaction in Romanian agriculture in 2018.

• Agroind and Promat, two leading local agriculture companies, on their joint-venture partnership (sale of 40% of shares) with Ameropa (2018).