Agro-industrial group Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, in the first quarter of 2023 received a net profit of $8.98 million, while the same period last year it ended with a net loss of $16.44 million.
According to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, its revenue for the period rose 70.7% to $47.30 million.
Gross profit in the first quarter of this year was $11.78 million versus a gross loss of $13.38 million last year, and operating profit was $8.58 million versus a $15.69 million loss, respectively.
The group also noted that its total debt in January-March this year decreased by 27.4% – to $7.94 million, and free cash flow increased 2.4 times – to $29.33 million, including 2.5 times to $19.58 million in Ukraine.
According to the report, export revenues in the first quarter of this year increased 4.2 times to $24.16 million, and as a result, its share in total revenues reached 51.1% against 20.6% a year earlier.
Eggs revenues increased 64.8% to $34.39 million and egg products increased 88.9% to $12.91 million, with pretax earnings from those segments increasing $2.39 million and $6.62 million, respectively.
Previously, Ovostar pointed out that in the first quarter of 2023 it reduced egg production by 2% – to 362 million eggs, but managed to significantly increase exports of products with a significant increase in prices compared to the previous year. In particular, the average price of eggs in the reporting period increased by 56% to $0.139/egg.
Compared with a year ago, in Q1 2023 the number of laying hens decreased by 2%, including laying hens by 6.2% – to 7.12 million and 6.38 million, respectively.
The volume of processed eggs in the 1st quarter of 2023 remained at the level of the previous year – 92 million eggs: 406 tons of dry and 3.073 thousand tons of liquid egg products were produced, compared to 561 tons and 2.131 thousand tons in the first quarter of last year, respectively. As with eggs, the average price of egg products rose substantially over the year: dry products rose 32% to $8.79/kg, while liquid products rose 44% to $2.66/kg (all prices are excluding VAT).
The holding company of the group – Ovostar Union N.V. – in mid-June 2011, it floated 25% of its shares on the WSE and raised $33.2 mln. Its majority stake is owned by Prime One Capital Limited, which is controlled by its CEO B. Belikov and Chairman of the Board of Directors Vitaliy Veresenko.
In 2022, Ovostar reportedly reduced egg production by 9% to 1.55 bln eggs and sales by 6% to 1.08 bln eggs.
At the same time, sales of dry egg products decreased by a third to 2.13 thousand tons, liquid – by 26% to 10.62 thousand tons.
“Ovostar made $6.09 million in net profit in 2022, which is 3.7 times more than in 2021. Its revenue for the past year increased by 1.7% – to $135.63 million.
