Lavanda Spectrum has acquired the former Olimpex Coupe Grain Terminal in Ukraine’s Port of Odessa and renamed it Lavanda Terminal, World Grain wrote.
The acquisition followed efforts by creditors in international and Ukrainian courts to reverse alleged asset stripping by the terminal’s former owners, the 15 July report said.
Lavanda said it had assumed physical control of Lavanda Terminal in the week of the report and had appointed Swedish entrepreneur Carl Sturen as CEO.
A co-founder and former owner of food processing company Chumak, Sturen has been investing in Ukraine since 1994 and has strong ties to the country’s southern region, according to the report.
“We have absolute confidence that we can transform the grain terminal formerly known as Olimpex into a transparent world-class facility,” Sturen was quoted as saying.
The acquisition of the terminal followed the successful enforcement of mortgages granted to Madison Pacific as security trustee under loans that GN Terminal Enterprises (GNT) had received from Argentem Creek Partners (ACP), the report said.
Ukrainian courts had also reversed several allegedly fraudulent transfers through which the former owners of GNT, Sergiy Groza and Volodomyr Naumenko, had sought to strip assets – including substantial elements of the terminal complex – from GNT, World Grain wrote.
The enforcement followed a multi-level legal battle between Groza and Naumenko and their creditors, ACP and co-lenders Innovatus Capital Partners (ICP). Both long-standing investors in the Ukrainian market, ACP and ICP provided US$95M to finance the terminal and had been granted a comprehensive security package to protect their investment, the report said.
In June 2024, a Ukrainian Court found that Groza and Naumenko had leased the former Olimpex Coupe and MetalsUkraine terminals to Agiros Ltd, an entity sanctioned by the Ukrainian government and linked to smuggler Vadym Alperin, for the storage, trans-shipment and export of “black” grain.
Groza and Naumenko were sentenced to 21 months in prison in October 2024 by an English High Court judge for breaching asset disclosure orders made in connection with a Worldwide Freezing Order obtained by Madison Pacific in January 2023.
In January 2025, the London Court of International Arbitration Tribunal ordered Groza and Naumenko to pay approximately US$150M in respect of outstanding debts owed to ACP, interest and costs.
At the time of the report, the debts were still being pursued.
Naumenko was arrested in May 2025 on suspicion of fraud and forgery related to the unexplained disappearance of more than 100,000 tonnes of grain pledged as collateral for the ICP loan.
On 9 July, the Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled in favour of Oleksii Sokol, the court-appointed bankruptcy manager of Olimpex Coupe International, upholding the decision by the Western Commercial Court of Appeal made on 7 April.
The original decision returned control of the dry port to the court-appointed bankruptcy manager so he could re-establish operations and resume overdue payments to the company’s creditors, the report said.
While they continued enforcement action to protect their position, ACP and ICP said they welcomed the launch of Lavanda Terminal.
“We at ACP, together with ICP, are committed to supporting Lavanda Terminal as it installs transparent operations at the Port of Odessa facility,” said John Patton, founding partner of ACP.
“We will do everything we can to support the process and ensure the terminal resumes operations as soon as possible.”
