OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2011. Kernel Holding S.A. is pleased to announce that on 27 June 2011 the Company entered into a call option to acquire 100% of the Black Sea Industries ("BSI") crushing plant located close to the Company's grain terminal in the port of Illichevsk. While the exercise of the call option is subject to approval by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the BSI crushing plant will be fully operated by Kernel as of the start of the new season 2011/2012. The value of the transaction is set at USD 140 million on a debt free and cash free basis.

Andrey Verevskyy, Chairman of Kernel Holding S.A. stated: " We are extremely pleased to acquire the BSI crushing plant. Thanks to the successful tolling agreement signed with BSI in September 2009 providing Kernel the right to crush 230 000 tons of sunflower seed per year, we are already well acquainted with this first-class production asset. We appreciate not only the high efficiency of this multi-seed crushing plant, but also its location, which is close to ideal. This has been, of course, a key parameter in our decision process: Both the oil and meal produced at the crushing plant are directly transported through our grain terminal and shipped onto vessels for export. Not only will we reap immediate benefits from this acquisition, but we also see significant opportunities to develop further synergies with our terminal in Illichevsk, achieving, in particular, cost savings in logistics as we expand the volume of oil and meal we export through the terminal. As we enter the new season 2011/2012, we look forward to immediately increase our crushing program in that plant to its maximum capacity of 500 000 tons of seed per year and, consequently, bring our total crush capacity to 2.6 million tons of seed per year."