KYIV. Aug 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Astarta agro-industrial holding saw a 3.3-fold rise in net profit in January-June 2016 year-over-year, totaling EUR 75.2 million, according to a company report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
Consolidated revenue grew by 17%, to EUR 148 million, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 23%, to EUR 109 million and gross profit – by 1.7%, to EUR 95.6 million.
The share of exports of total revenue was 50%. Net debt as of June 30, 2016 fell by 30%, to EUR 144 million. Net debt/EBITDA ratio was 1.
Net profit soared by 3.9 times in the national currency, to UAH 2.14 billion, revenue – by 40%, to UAH 4.2 billion and gross profit – by 21.5%, to UAH 2.7 billion.
Sugar revenue grew by 2%, to EUR 60 million (41% of consolidated revenue). Out of 140,000 tonnes of sugar sold almost 20,000 was exported.
Crops revenue grew by 67%, to EUR 35 million (24% of consolidated revenue). Over 201,000 tonnes were sold and 86% of it was exported.
Soybean crushing segment revenue increased by 23%, to EUR 38 million (26% of consolidated revenue).
Milk segment brought 8% of consolidated revenue to the company (EUR 12 million).
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares and dairy farms. The holding also has a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).
KYIV. Aug 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s State Agency of Forest Resources has ordered regional departments and forestry offices to publish full information on the planned forest cutting and the register of forest cutting tickets.
According to a posting on the agency’s website, the order is given in an agency’s letter dated August 8, 2016.
In addition, the agency ordered to put all timber up for sale at auctions.
“After auctions regional departments are obliged to post production programs of forest offices on their websites: the measures are required to cover the needs of Ukrainian timber processors,” acting head of the agency Khrystyna Yushkevych said.
She said that she is waiting for counter-moves from timber processors with volumes of timber bought and processed by them made public.
The European Business Association (EBA) welcomed these decisions of the agency.
“In the EBA appeals and at the meetings with senior officials we repeatedly paid attention to ongoing violations of the existing Regulations of sale of unprocessed timber, namely putting up incomplete amount of unprocessed timber at the auction trades,” the EBA said on its website.
KYIV. Aug 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Clean Technology Fund (CTF) have provided EUR 6.9 million to Rengy Sarata LLC (part of Rengy Development, Kyiv) to build a solar power plant with a capacity of 9.5 MW in Vinnytsia region, EBRD Senior Communications Adviser Anton Usov has wrote on the Facebook page.
“EBRD and CTF have provided a loan of EUR 6.9 million to Ukrainian developer Rengy Sarata LLC to design, build and exploit a solar power plant with a capacity of 9.5 MW to be located in Sharhorod near Vinnytsia. Since 2012, this is the third successful [and the largest project] of the EBRD with Rengy Development,” he said.
As reported, earlier Rengy Development has built solar power plants with an installed capacity of 4.5 MW and 7 MW in Tomashopil and Bershad districts of Vinnytsia region.
KYIV. Aug 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is facilitating the conditions for foreign economic transactions and expanding the possibilities of financing imports, according to a posting on the NBU’s website.
According to the NBU, the relevant amendments are outlined in NBU resolution No. 368 dated August 11, 2016. The amendments will take effect on August 18, 2016.
“The NBU expands the opportunities for financing imports transactions of Ukrainian enterprises thanks to relaxation of the conditions for attracting foreign financing with participation of foreign export-credit agencies and international financial institutions (IFIs),” the central bank said.
Resident can submit original documents and their copies in the electronic form to register the loan agreements signed with nonresidents.
Source: The Ministry of Finance
KYIV. Aug 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – UMG Holding, the only Ukrainian operator of waste from TPPs, in January-June 2016 increased sales of dry ash from Ukrainian coal thermal power plants (TPP) by 17.5% compared to the same period in 2015, to 83,700 tonnes.
According to a press release from UMG, 100% of the said volume of raw materials was shipped to Ukrainian producers of cement and concrete.
The company notes dry ash is used in the manufacture of concrete structures, dry building mixes and aerated concrete. Its use allows improving the technical characteristics of final products and saving natural components in their composition. At present the UMG customer base includes about 50 largest producers of this product in Ukraine.
The raw material base for dry ash supplies to UMG customers are five TPPs of DTEK, namely Kurakhove TPP, Kryvy Rih TPP, Ladyzhyn TPP, Burshtyn TPP and Dobrotvirska TPP.
UMG is a diversified holding company operating in commodity, industrial and trading areas. It was founded in 2006 as a clay extracting business.
