On December 4-5, CEO of Astarta Agro Holding Viktor Ivanchyk bought 0.033% of the company’s shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) for a total of PLN238.37 thousand (about $59.27 thousand at the current exchange rate).
According to information on the Warsaw Stock Exchange’s website, the previous time it acquired 0.113% of the shares on June 22-26 at a price of PLN28.8-PLN29.0 per share.
This time, Albacon Ventures Ltd, owned by Ivanczyk, bought 8.32 thousand shares at PLN28.65 per share in 94 transactions on December 4-5.
At the last shareholders’ meeting on May 24 this year, Ivanczyk’s 40% stake gave him 52.93% of the votes.
The latest report as of November this year indicated that the Ivanchyk family owns 40.11%, Fairfax Financial Holdings – 29.91%, Kopernik Global Investors – 2.64%, Heptagon Capital – 1.88%, and the share of any other shareholder does not exceed 0.18%.
According to the WSE, Astarta’s share price is currently PLN28.4, which is 1.22% lower than at the opening.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
“Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 9.8% to EUR55.97 million in the first nine months of this year, while revenue increased by 14.8% to EUR392.00 million.
Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has announced the arrival of a batch of trucks to Poland by rail from Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian and Polish parties have agreed on all issues of transportation and customs and border procedures. The trucks will continue to their destination by road,” UZ said on its Telegram channel on Sunday.
The company emphasized that the next shipments are planned to be regular and involve more modernized platforms in transportation.
UZ reminded that it had organized a container train between Ukraine and Poland to transport trucks. It runs on the route Sknyliv (Ukraine) – Slavków (Poland). To order the transportation of a truck by a container train from Ukraine, you need to contact the Liski Transport Service Center branch of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, and in the opposite direction – UZ Cargo Poland.
As reported, UZ sent the first container train with trucks to Poland on December 7. In this way, Ukrainian exporters tried to solve the problem of crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border, which had been blocked by Polish carriers for a month.
Benchmark oil prices are showing a moderate rise on Monday morning after declining over the past seven weeks.
The price of February futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 7:10 a.m. is $76.36 per barrel, which is $0.52 (0.69%) higher than at the close of the previous session. Last Friday, these contracts rose in price by $1.42 (1.9%) to $75.47 per barrel.
Quotes for January futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time increased by $0.41 (0.58%) to $71.64 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, they rose by $1.89 (2.7%) to $71.23 per barrel.
Last week, the price of Brent fell by 3.9%, while WTI fell by 3.8%. Both brands finished in the red for the seventh week in a row, which has not been seen since 2018.
Since the end of September, oil has fallen in price by about 20%, despite the continuation and deepening of voluntary oil production cuts by OPEC+ countries, including Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Oil market participants also evaluate the data that consumer prices (CPI) in China in November fell by 0.5% year-on-year, the fastest pace since November 2020. The consensus forecast was for a 0.1% decline last month, according to Trading Economics. In October, they fell by 0.2%.
“Price gains are somewhat limited early this week due to concerns about demand in China,” wrote Yip Jun Ron of IG Asia Pte.
Meanwhile, data from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes showed that over the past week, the number of operating oil rigs in the United States decreased by two to 503 units. The number of gas rigs, meanwhile, increased by three to 119, the highest level since September.
The Union of Road Hauliers of Slovakia (UNAS) has announced its decision to resume blocking truck traffic through the Slovak border crossing point Vysne Nemecke-Uzhhorod on Monday, December 11, according to the UNAS Facebook page on Sunday.
“The Union of Road Carriers of Slovakia (UNAS) decided on 10.12.2023 to extend the protest at the Vysne Nemecke/Uzhhorod border crossing from 11.12.2023 from 15:00 until further notice,” the statement reads.
The carriers warn that they will “block the entry to the territory of the Slovak Republic for freight transportation. Personal transportation will not be restricted in any way.”
“This decision was made by the Presidium based on an assessment of the information received and its impact on the Slovak road transport market. We join the protests organized in Poland from 06.11.2023 and from 11.12.2023 also in Hungary,” UNAS said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Buenos Aires with the newly elected President of Argentina Javier Millais. “I met with Javier Millais and congratulated him on his official inauguration as President of Argentina,” he wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday evening.
“Today in the squares and streets of Buenos Aires, the word “freedom” – libertad – was heard very often. And this unites us – Ukraine and Argentina. We really value freedom, we really defend it, and we are really ready to strengthen freedom together,” Zelenskyy emphasized during his meeting with Javier Millais.
As of Sunday morning, December 10, about 3,500 trucks are queuing to enter Ukraine at the Ukrainian-Polish border, according to the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS), Andriy Demchenko.
“The situation is almost unchanged. Four directions are blocked. “Rava-Ruska – Khrebenne, Yahodyn – Dorohusk, Krakovets – Korchova, Shehyny – Medyka. As of this morning, according to the information we have from the Polish border guards, almost 3,500 trucks are in line to cross into Ukraine,” Demchenko said on the air of the national telethon on Sunday.
The SBGS spokesman noted that the largest number of trucks is opposite the Shehyni checkpoint – 1,200, and the Yahodyn checkpoint – almost 900.
“Of course, during the day there is a certain movement of trucks both entering Ukraine and leaving Ukraine in the direction of Poland, but there is no dynamics and intensity that was before November 6,” added Demchenko.
