The agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group is completing the harvesting of the late crop group, for which more than 93 thousand hectares were allocated in the 2024 season, the press service of the agricultural holding reported.
According to the report, Continental has already harvested sunflower from an area of 13 thou hectares, soybeans from 46.5 thou hectares, potatoes from 1.8 thou hectares, sugar beets from 3.2 thou hectares, and is completing threshing corn from 28.5 thou hectares. For all major crops, the company managed to achieve the appropriate quality indicators and exceeded the planned yield.
In addition, Continental has also completed sowing winter crops for the 2025 harvest and sowed 85.2 thousand hectares.
According to Georg von Nolken, CEO of Continental Farmers Group, the agricultural holding’s team has coped with its production targets and achieved the planned results in its operations.
“We continue to work in difficult, unpredictable conditions: we sow and harvest crops, support the national economy and local communities at a time when both the internal situation in the country and the circumstances on foreign markets pose serious challenges to the agricultural business. Effective technologies, well-established processes and reliable support from a strategic international investor allow Continental to remain stable and even grow in such conditions,” Georg von Nolken emphasized and added that the company managed to achieve its goals thanks to teamwork.
According to the agroholding, in the 2024 season, Continental expanded its storage capacity and bought a 120 thsd ton elevator in Lviv region. In addition, the company created its own railroad fleet of 250 grain cars. This allowed Continental to start developing a new business area in the region – trading – and to develop its own logistics and infrastructure.
The agricultural holding also upgraded its agricultural machinery fleet and carried out the planned modernization of its potato and elevator facilities.
“Next year, the company will stick to its existing production strategy: the priority is to continuously improve operational efficiency, technology, advanced agronomic practices, sustainable development and regenerative production approaches,” Continental summarized.
Mriya Agroholding and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into an agreement with international investor Salic UK to sell its assets.
Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests in agricultural and livestock production.
In October 2024, TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) paid UAH 191.1 million under the concluded insurance contracts, which is 56.1% more than the amount of the company’s indemnities for the same month in 2023.
According to the insurer’s website, more than a quarter of the total volume of payments, or 28.8%, accounted for hull insurance – UAH 54.8 million, which is 41% higher than the corresponding figure for October 2023, for MTPL – 28.9%, or UAH 55.3 million (+ 16.7%), for Green Card – 23.4%, or UAH 44.8 million (3.5 times more).
The share of VHI in the company’s claims portfolio amounted to 15.3%, or UAH 28.9 million (+44.1%) in October.
Under other insurance contracts, the company paid UAH 7.38 million (+2.6 times).
TAS Insurance Group was registered in 1998. It is a universal company offering more than 80 types of insurance products in various types of voluntary and compulsory insurance. It has an extensive regional network: 28 regional directorates and branches and 450 sales offices throughout Ukraine.
Despite the general shift from TV to digital services, DW maintains a strong presence in Ukraine via linear television – also thanks to a successful partner strategy.
A reach study on media consumption in Ukraine, conducted between May and June 2024, shows that online platforms such as Telegram have become central sources for news consumption, while TV usage is declining significantly. This is mainly due to a loss of trust in the nationwide TV stations, which have merged their news offerings into the so-called news marathon. Nevertheless, 10% of the adult population in Ukraine watch DW’s TV programs every week. Thanks to TV cooperations with local partners, DW reaches 7% of Ukrainians every week, while up to 5% of weekly usage is accounted for by DW’s own channel.
The most used DW program is “Reporter”, which reaches 4% of the population in Ukrainian and an additional 1% in Russian every week. Other programs such as “Global Us” (2%), “Tomorrow Today” (2%) and “Focus on Europe” (1%) achieve their reach primarily through their Ukrainian editions. The use of the programs is balanced across the regions of Ukraine.
In addition to linear channels, DW is also successful on online and social media platforms in Ukraine. Between March and August 2024, DW’s Ukrainian YouTube channel achieved 2.6 million monthly views, while its Russian channel reached 3 million in Ukraine. On Facebook, the Ukrainian channel has reached 2.6 million views per month. The DW website is also widely used in Ukraine, with around 1 million visits per month.
The data collected confirms the increasing awareness of international media in Ukraine, particularly since 2019 and the Russian invasion: according to a survey, 29% of respondents in Ukraine are familiar with DW.
The reach study was designed by DW Market and Audience Insights and conducted on site by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in May/June 2024 by means of a telephone survey. The study collected representative data for the Ukrainian population aged 18 and older, with the exception of the Russian-occupied territories. Over 2,000 respondents took part in the survey.
According to a December 2023 study by forsa GmbH on media use among Ukrainian refugees in Germany, DW enjoys high levels of awareness and trust.
Source: https://corporate.dw.com/en/dw-reaches-around-10-of-adults-in-ukraine-weekly-via-tv/a-70794278
Plastic production in Europe in 2023 decreased by 8.3%, according to the industry organization Plastics Europe. According to its managing director, Virginia Janssens, the decline was stronger than expected.
At the same time, global plastic production grew by 3.4%, in particular due to the scale-up of production in China and the United States. According to S&P Global, China accounted for 60% of the growth in petrochemical capacity last year.
The share of European suppliers in the global market will decline to 12% in 2023 from 28% in 2006. In addition, due to declining demand, the volume of mechanical plastic recycling in Europe last year fell for the first time since 2018, Plastics Europe noted. This is the most common recycling method in the region.
In October, the industry organization Plastics Recyclers Europe pointed out the alarming nature of the downward trend in the European plastic recycling market, which is why many companies are leaving it. Among other things, the market is under pressure from an oversupply of virgin plastic outside Europe.
Businesses are also dissatisfied with European legislation aimed at achieving ambitious climate goals. According to the companies, it is “stifling growth,” the FT writes. American ExxonMobil (SPB: XOM) and Saudi Arabia’s SABIC this year announced their intention to close petrochemical plants in Europe. LyondellBasell, Versalis, and Trinseo are also going to close their sites or revise their plans for them.
The industrial and technical company Agromat LLC, which placed a public issue of three-year H series bonds for UAH 100 million in early October, will start placing a similar I series issue for another UAH 100 million on November 19.
“The funds to be raised from the public offering will be used by the issuer to expand its retail network,” the prospectus says.
According to the prospectus, the nominal interest rate on the bonds with three-month coupons is set at 16.35% p.a. for the first year of circulation, and 3-months for the next two years. UIRD +5.45 p.p. (Ukrainian index of rates on deposits of individuals UIRD3-month +5.45 percentage points (p.p.).
The bonds with a nominal value of UAH thousand will be placed at par through the PFTS exchange, the investment firm is state-owned Ukrgasbank. The maturity date is from November 16 to 18, 2027.
The nominal interest rate of the previous issue of series H, registered by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission on September 6 this year, was set at 16.5% per annum in the first year of circulation. The bonds were placed between September 30 and October 2, and are scheduled to mature on September 27-29, 2027.
Almost simultaneously, on September 25, 2024, Agromat started to redeem UAH 100 million of G series bonds issued in 2021, which allowed the NSSMC to cancel the registration of this issue on October 24.
“Agromat is engaged in the production and sale of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware, registered in 1993. The issuer operates in 25 outlets, including 10 in Kyiv, including a specialized shopping center for the sale of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware with a total area of more than 8,000 square meters.
According to the prospectus, the company’s co-owners with 28.65% each are CEO Serhiy Voitenko, Oksana Reva and Anatoliy Taday, with another 10.05% owned by Olga Bashota and 4% by Nadiya Rusheliuk.
The company’s revenue grew by 13.5% to UAH 1 billion 506.74 million in the first half of this year, while net profit decreased by 2.8 times to UAH 15.62 million.
According to the prospectus, this year Agromat would like to increase its net income to UAH 3 billion 263.07 million, and next year – to UAH 3 billion 552.53 million, and net profit – to UAH 124.32 million and UAH 135 million, respectively, with assets of about UAH 2.64 billion and EBITDA of UAH 297 million.
The company’s main long-term lender at 9% and 17% is Kredobank, with UAH 98 million as of mid-year, and another UAH 3.3 million was due to ProCredit Bank at 17%.
While the short-term loan portfolio totaling UAH 544 million includes loans from six banks at rates of 14.8% to 16.5%, compared to 18.5-19.5% at the beginning of the year: Raiffeisen – UAH 199 million, ProCredit – UAH 106 million, OTP – UAH 86 million, Credit Agricole – UAH 73 million, FUIB – UAH 45 million and Pivdenny – UAH 35 million.
IMC Agroholding completed the corn harvest on November 17, which was the fastest time to complete the harvest of grains and oilseeds in the company over the past 10 years, the company’s press service reported.
According to the report, about 611 thsd tonnes of corn were harvested from an area of 65.7 thsd ha with a yield of 9.3 t/ha. The corn yield is also significantly higher than the national average, which, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, is 6.3 t/ha.
“The current yield cannot be called a record, although it is almost one and a half times higher than the national average, but the low moisture content of corn (17.8%) made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of grain drying and logistics, which, together with good prices, gives confidence in a good financial result,” commented Bogdan Krivitsky, Chief Operating Officer of IMC.
As reported, in the 2024 season, IMC grew spring crops on 90 thou hectares, of which 65.8 thou hectares were allocated for corn and 24.2 thou hectares for sunflower. The agricultural holding completed sunflower harvesting in the last days of September. The company produced 77.7 thousand tons of gross harvest with a yield 60% higher than the national average of 3.2 t/ha.
IMC Agro Holding is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine) in the crop production, elevators and warehouses segments. The Group’s land bank is about 120 thousand hectares and storage capacity is 554 thousand tons, with the 2023 harvest of 1.002 million tons.
In 2023, IMC posted a net loss of $21.03 million compared to $1.12 million a year earlier, and its EBITDA decreased 11.3 times to $3.22 million. Revenue increased by 22.3% to $139.45 million, while the share of exports decreased to 68% from 73% a year earlier.
