Agricultural holding "Mriya", the group of companies "TAKO" and the group of companies "Amaranth" are top in the list of the largest debtors-farmers, having a total of debt to creditors of about 1.4 billion dollars. This was announced by chief editor of FinMaidan, Ruslan Chornyi, during a round table "Financial fraud in the agricultural sector: what the investor risks", held on March 31 in the press center of "Ukrainian News".

The round table was attended by Director of the Department of medium-sized corporate customers of Ukrsotsbank, Andriy Putivskyi, Deputy Chairman of the First Ukrainian International Bank's (FUIB) Board, Kostiantyn Shkolyarenko, Director General of OTP Leasing, Andriy Pavlushyn, senior lawyer of the firm Sayenko Kharenko, Andriy Zablocki, and Director General of Service Agroholding Viktor Kolesnyk.

In particular, the total debt of "Mriya" has made more than 1.2 billion dollars, "TAKO" owed 60 million dollars, "Amaranth" took the third place with a debt of 50 million dollars.

It is noted, that from among the trio, agricultural holding "TAKO" took the most aggressive position against creditors (financial institutions such as Ukrsotsbank, FUIB, Credit Agricole, Raiffeisen Bank Aval are among the creditors of this company).

In particular, on March 7, around 300 armed militants in the Zhytomyr region using force tried to take away 49 thousand tons of maize, arrested by the court in favor of the bank FUIB, the 17-million-dollar-loan of which "TAKO" ceased to serve the last year. As a result of the clashes, one employee of the security company was killed and another 15 were injured. Representatives of "TAKO" declared that they had nothing to do with the tragic events. However, according to lawyers of the financial institution, the owner of the grain is precisely the agricultural holding: retroactively the maize was documented in related structures - "Stevedoring Company" Kherson sea terminal" and the company "Deas Trade".

According to experts, the lack of adequate response to the actions of "TAKO" from the authorities threatened folding of loan programs in the agricultural sector, a decrease in the activity of leasing companies. In particular, Viktor Kolesnyk, Director General of the group of companies "Service Agroholdnig", which also has a claim to "TAKO", noted that investors are forced to review work with clients, in particular, to reduce the size of loans.

"We will fight at all court levels to return the money. But in general, the market situation will worsen in 2015 if the responsibility of "ideologists" of such credit schemes is not made stricter", - said General Director of the group of companies "Service Agroholding."

Andriy Putivskyi, director of corporate clients department of UniCredit Bank, said that the financial institutions now have to worry working with large agricultural holdings. "Now we are going more in the segment of medium or below medium-sized companies, with a land bank of 5-20 thousand hectares. Banks have become very careful in new transactions, more stringent requirements are imposed, they are moving away from large transactions and tie them to national currency ", he explained.

According to the round table participants, the authorities must establish clear rules for all market participants. Without these, the risks and the losses for investors will be inevitable.

According to Deputy Chairman of the Board of the First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB) Kostiantyn Shkolyarenko, most problems occur at the level of implementation of court decisions.

"People come with bats, brass knuckles, guns. People, who are ready to shoot. Police are hiding and there are no forces that can stand against these gangs. There should be a clear position of the state - judicial decisions must be carried out. And the one who makes hurdles for it, should be punished ", stated Shkolyarenko.