Ukrainian agricultural group Viliya, owned by Yevhen Dudka, has acquired an agribusiness with a land bank of approximately 6,000 hectares in western Ukraine from Yuriy Kosiuk’s MHP. The assets were reportedly valued at around $3,500 per hectare, with an expected investment payback period of seven years.
Viliya Group (Volyn-Zerno-Produkt LLC), founded by Yevhen Dudka, completed a transaction to acquire agricultural assets with a land bank of approximately 6,000 hectares from MHP. The deal was structured as an acquisition of corporate rights.
The parties have not publicly disclosed the exact transaction value.
According to Forbes Ukraine, in 2025 MHP offered individual agricultural enterprises to potential buyers at an indicative valuation of approximately $3,500 per hectare of land under management.
In an interview with Latifundist, journalists also referred to market estimates suggesting that Viliya’s acquisition was valued at around $3,500 per hectare.
Based on this indicative valuation, the estimated value of the acquired agribusiness with a 6,000-hectare land bank could have reached approximately $21 million. However, this figure does not represent a confirmed transaction price but rather an indicative estimate based on publicly reported market benchmarks.
Commenting on the acquisition price, Yevhen Dudka acknowledged that the company had paid a substantial premium for the assets.
“I paid an outrageously high price,” Yevhen Dudka said.
Nevertheless, the businessman considers the investment strategically justified.
According to Dudka, the key advantages of the acquired land bank included high-quality soils and sufficient moisture availability.
These characteristics are particularly important for agricultural production amid increasing climate risks and changing growing conditions for agricultural crops.
Another key factor behind the acquisition was the opportunity to integrate the newly acquired land into Viliya’s existing operational structure.
The company already had agricultural machinery, production personnel, logistics infrastructure, and established management teams.
Following the acquisition, certain production units were able to expand the area under cultivation to approximately 10,000 hectares without a proportional increase in staffing or fixed operating costs.
As a result, the transaction enabled Viliya to improve the utilization of its existing production capacity and generate additional economies of scale.
According to Yevhen Dudka’s calculations, the acquired assets are expected to achieve payback within approximately seven years. This investment horizon is consistent with the group’s internal criteria for acquiring new assets.
How Viliya’s Land Bank Has Expanded Following the Acquisition
According to the group’s official corporate history, Viliya’s land bank has grown as follows:
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2022 — 44,300 hectares;
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2023 — 50,760 hectares;
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2024 — 52,580 hectares;
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2025 — 62,000 hectares.
Thus, Viliya’s land bank expanded by approximately 9,400 hectares, or 18%, during 2025.
The acquisition of MHP’s agricultural assets was one of the key drivers of the company’s expansion, although not all of the increase in its land bank can necessarily be attributed to this transaction.
Viliya is currently one of the largest agricultural producers in western Ukraine, operating across the Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, and Ternopil regions.
The group operates grain storage facilities with a total simultaneous capacity of more than 600,000 tonnes, its own grain trading operations, flour milling facilities, a seed processing plant, logistics infrastructure, and the Lukiv dry port near the Polish border.
