The purchase of agribusiness is a complex, multi-stage process that requires the coordination of many parties, verification of data and information, extensive work with documents, identification and prevention of risks... It is a kind of chess game, which is willingly played by several parties at once, with one of the parties having legal expertise as a must.
Let's see why lawyers are needed when buying agribusiness.
Buying and selling agribusiness is a multi-layered, complex process that requires diversified expertise. One of its critical components is a thorough audit of the land bank.
Speaking of Due Diligence, we mean, first of all, an objective representation of the investment object: how much the declared number of hectares, other assets, the duration of contracts, etc., correspond with reality. Due Diligence is considered a set of services that involve various departments or even individual companies. Recently, in land purchase & sale transactions, there are not many complex deals.
In the last 2 years, investments in the agricultural sector have increased dramatically. At the same time, the number of investors who have no experience in agribusiness, do not understand its specifics and, consequently, often make critical mistakes at the stage of the transaction, has also risen. Having appropriate experience or own legal department does not usually help to prevent such mistakes.
The launch of the land market is a turning point for Ukraine, because we have finally ceased to be a banana republic in the eyes of the world community. In the first 6 months, more than 50,000 purchase and sale transactions concerning land plots took place, which is approximately 0.5% of the land bank of Ukraine. This is not much, but enough for working out the mechanics and setting the rules.