On Saturday, November 22, in Zakarpattya, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions heavy rain and wet snow, in the western regions of sticking wet snow, ice, on the roads icy; in the Carpathians heavy wet snow, warns Ukrhydrometcenter.
“November 22 in Zakarpattya, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions significant precipitation (rain and wet snow), in the western regions of the sticking of wet snow, ice, on the roads icy (I level of danger, yellow); in the Carpathians heavy wet snow (II level of danger, orange)”, – stated in the message of the Ukrainian hydrometeorological center.
It is noted that weather conditions may lead to complications in the work of energy, construction, utility companies and disruption of traffic on roads and streets (I level of threat, yellow), on the passes of the Carpathians (II level of threat, orange).
The Supervisory Board of Private JSC “IC ‘VUSO’ (Kiev) in order to expand the sales network, to increase the sales volume in the region has decided to create a separate subdivision Ternopil branch of IC ”VUSO No. 2″, the company reported in the information system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NCSSM).
The separate subdivision will represent the interests of IC “VUSO”, conclude insurance contracts, provide consultations to consumers of insurance services and clients.
IC “VUSO” was founded in 2001. It is a member of ITSBU and UFS, a participant of Direct Loss Settlement Agreement and a member of Nuclear Insurance Pool.
Ukrainian chess club GRECO (Kyiv), representing the law firm of the same name, won the FIDE World Corporate Chess Championship 2025, which took place in Goa, India.
According to a statement from the Kyiv Chess Federation, 11 teams representing major international brands, including JP Morgan, Deloitte, Microsoft, and Google, took part in the final tournament.
It is noted that the victory was won by the GRECO team, which the organizers describe as a relatively small business compared to global corporations, but a well-known club in the chess community: its professional teams have repeatedly won various club tournaments. Just a week before the start in Goa, GRECO won the European Corporate Team Championship.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) website published a review article titled “GRECO recognized as the smartest company in the world” following the competition. The Federation explains that this conclusion is based on the logic that “if chess is a game for smart people, then the winner of the corporate world championship is the smartest company.”
“This year, we won two major corporate titles – world and European champions. This is a historic achievement and further confirmation that Ukraine remains one of the leaders in the chess world,” said GRECO President Pavel Kuftyrev, whose words are quoted in the report. According to him, the company intends to further develop the GRECO chess project and set more ambitious goals for itself.
The “golden” team at the world championship included international grandmaster Vladimir Onischuk and international masters Valery Grinev, Alexey Maly, and Sergey Pavlov. According to the Federation, candidate master Viren Bagiryan and Pavel Kuftirev himself also participated in the qualifying stages for the final.
According to information from the Kiev Chess Federation, at the tournament in Goa, the Ukrainian team not only won team gold, but each of the players also received an individual award on their board: Onischuk, Pavlov, and Maly won gold medals, while Grinev won silver.
The Federation emphasizes that GRECO’s success is important not only for the company’s brand, but also for Ukraine’s image as one of the strongest chess countries in the world, especially in the context of the ongoing war.
Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, earned EUR43.70 million in net profit in January-September 2025, down 42.2% from the same period last year.
As noted in the company’s report to the Warsaw Stock Exchange, net profit in the third quarter of this year amounted to EUR 1.43 million, which is 20 times less than in the third quarter of last year.
According to the document, Astarta’s revenue for the nine months decreased by 22.4% to EUR342.78 million, although in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year, the decrease was only 3.8% to EUR116.16 million.
At the same time, due to the increase in production costs and a smaller increase in the net value of biological assets, gross profit for the nine months decreased by 34.2% to EUR121.05 million, while in the third quarter, it fell by 48.8% to EUR29.34 million.
As a result, EBITDA for the nine months amounted to EUR101.46 million, which is 22.9% less than for the nine months of last year.
Astarta specified that, excluding the impact of IAS41, the gross margin was 33% (-4 p.p. year-on-year), while the EBITDA margin even increased by 3 p.p. to 28%.
It is also noted that operating cash flow for the period decreased 3.6 times compared to the same period last year, to EUR 37.41 million, mainly due to the previous reduction in inventories, while investment cash flow doubled compared to the same period last year, to EUR75.44 million, with the largest investments made in the soybean processing and agriculture segments.
According to the published data, the main source of income for the agricultural holding in the reporting period was agriculture, which provided 33% of this income, or EUR112 million (-23% compared to the same period last year).
Sugar production accounted for 32% of Astarta’s revenue, or EUR 108 million (-36% compared to the same period last year).
Revenue from soybean processing remained stable at EUR 77 million, accounting for 22% of Astarta’s consolidated revenue. Revenue from livestock farming increased by 14% compared to the same period last year, reaching EUR 42 million, or 12% of total sales for the nine months of 2025.
Export revenue amounted to EUR 218 million, or 63% of sales.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine and the largest sugar producer in Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares, dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators, and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2025, Astarta reduced its net profit by 10.3% to EUR47.11 million, while its consolidated revenue fell by 29.3% to EUR320.71 million.
On June 12 this year, the shareholders’ meeting approved the payment of dividends for 2024 in the amount of EUR0.5 per share for a total of EUR12.5 million, which is in line with the figures for the previous two years.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has allowed ADP-Agro LLC (Lozivsky district, Kharkiv region) to acquire one of the enterprises belonging to the AgroGeneration agricultural holding, Podolivska LLC (Izyumsky district, Kharkiv region), according to the press service of the agency.
“ADP-Agro LLC has been granted permission to acquire direct control over Podolivska LLC,” the statement said.
According to data from the Opendatabot service, Podolivska LLC specializes in growing grains, oilseeds, and perennial crops. The company’s founder is Agrarian Company Agronova Ukraine LLC (owned by AgroGeneration). The ultimate beneficiary of Podolivska Agricultural Farm LLC is Serhiy Polumysny, a member of the board of AgroGeneration, which represents Novaagro.
ADP-Agro LLC grows grain, oilseed, and perennial crops and is owned by Oleksandr Katsuba, former deputy head of Naftogaz.
AgroGeneration was founded in 2007. Before the war, it owned a land bank of 56,000 hectares located in the Lviv, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions. Currently, according to various estimates, it farms 30,000 hectares. The company specializes in growing grain and oil crops. In 2024, NovaAgro acquired 56.90% of AgroGeneration’s share capital and voting rights. In 2025, the AMCU approved this deal.
Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, reduced revenue from sales of its key products by 22% to EUR343 million in January-September 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.
According to data published by the holding on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the main source of income for the agricultural holding in the reporting period was agriculture, which provided 33% of this income, or EUR112 million (-23% compared to the same period last year).
Sugar production accounted for 32% of Astarta’s revenue, or EUR 108 million (-36% compared to the same period last year).
Revenue from soybean processing remained stable at EUR77 million, accounting for 22% of Astarta’s consolidated revenue. Revenue from livestock farming increased by 14% compared to the same period last year to EUR42 million, or 12% of total sales for the first nine months of 2025.
Export revenue amounted to EUR218 million, or 63% of sales.
Gross profit amounted to EUR121 million (-34% year-on-year) with a corresponding gross margin, which decreased to 35% compared to 42% in 2024.
EBITDA amounted to EUR101 million, down 23% year-on-year, with EBITDA margin stable at 30%.
Excluding the impact of IAS41, gross margin was 33% (-4 p.p. year-on-year) and EBITDA margin was 28% for the first nine months of 2025.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine and the largest sugar producer in Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Hlobyn (Poltava region), seven elevators, and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2025, Astarta reduced its net profit by 10.3% to EUR47.11 million, and its consolidated revenue decreased by 29.3% to EUR320.71 million.
On June 12 this year, the shareholders’ meeting approved the payment of dividends for 2024 in the amount of EUR0.5 per share for a total of EUR12.5 million, which is in line with the figures for the previous two years.
