The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved a loan of up to $40 million for Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, at the sub-council level.
“(The loan) will assist in the construction and operation of a soy protein processing plant with a projected annual capacity of about 100,000 tons and help Astarta make other investments,” DFC said on its website.
At the same time, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group announced at the end of November 2024 that it was considering a $40 million loan to Astarta and a parallel $40 million loan for the construction of a soy protein concentrate plant in Poltava region. The recipient of the funds is Astarta Agro Protein LLC, a subsidiary of Astarta Holding plc.
It was noted that IFC has already assisted the agricultural holding in conducting market research, preparing a business plan for the project, and assessing its commercial viability in order to interact with potential investors.
Initially, the IFC Board of Directors planned to consider this project on December 20, but then postponed it to February 28, 2025.
As reported, in 2024, Astarta began investing in the construction of a plant for processing soybean meal into soy protein concentrate with a capacity of 500 tons per day (about 100 thousand tons per year) in the Globinsky Industrial Complex (Poltava region). The agricultural holding will invest over EUR 76 million in equipment and technology and create 110 new jobs.
“Astarta and its structural unit Astarta Agro Protein signed the first investment agreement with the Ukrainian government to receive compensation from the state for significant investments. As part of the agreement, the government will provide the agricultural holding with a number of incentives, including exemptions from import duties on new equipment, import VAT on new equipment and income tax for up to 5 years.
IFC recalled that Astarta commissioned a soybean processing plant in Globyno in December 2013. In 2023, it processed 232 thousand tons of soybeans, 73% of which were grown by the agricultural holding, and produced 172 thousand tons of soybean meal. In the first half of 2024, the share of the plant’s own raw materials increased to 90%.
Soybean concentrate is produced by processing soybean meal with higher added value. It serves as a raw material for the production of animal feed.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93 million.
Foreign Ministers of Ukraine and Albania, Andriy Sibiga and Igli Hasani inaugurated the Embassy of Albania in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga said on Platform X on Friday evening.
On October 20, the embassies of Albania, Argentina, Palestine, Palestine, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro were reportedly damaged as a result of enemy shelling in Kiev.
In February 2024, then Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after talks with his Albanian counterpart Igli Hasani that Albania plans to open its embassy in Kiev in the near future.
TheRepublic of Albania recognized the independence of Ukraine on January 4, 1992. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on January 13, 1993.
In 2024, Sukha Balka mine (Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro region), a part of Aleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, produced 917 thousand tonnes of commercial ore, down 1.5% from 931 thousand tonnes in 2023.
As Igor Piltek, Deputy General Director and Chief Engineer of the mine, said in an interview with the DCH Steel corporate newspaper on Thursday, crude ore production in 2024 amounted to one million tons, the volume of rock mass was about 7688 cubic meters, cutting operations amounted to 4,986 thousand meters, and well drilling amounted to 92,937 thousand meters.
Plans for 2025 include the extraction of 930 thousand tons of raw ore, 850 thousand tons of commercial ore, excavation of 8000 cubic meters of rock mass, 5200 meters of cutting operations, 91,773 thousand meters of drilling.
The Chief Engineer stated that in 2024, the company allocated UAH 43 million for equipment renewal.
According to him, the mine is implementing energy efficiency projects. At the same time, at the end of last year, the construction of a 2 MW solar power plant began at the Frunze mine, which is planned to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2025.
As reported, Sukha Balka mine produced almost 931 thousand tons of commercial ore in 2023, while in 2022 it produced 1.469 million tons (down 36.5%).
DMZ specializes in the production of steel, pig iron, rolled products and products made from them. On March 1, 2018, DCH Group signed an agreement to buy Dnipro Metallurgical Plant from Evraz.
Sukha Balka mine is one of the leading mining companies in Ukraine. It produces iron ore using an underground method. The mine includes Yubileynaya and Frunze mines. Frunze mine.
DCH Group acquired the mine from Evraz Group in May 2017.
In 2024, the Alo chain opened nine new stores, as well as reopened and renovated 54 outlets in 19 cities, its press service reports.
“In 2024, Allo continued to invest in store development. We are also accelerating our logistics and developing the work of delivery points. In 2025, we will continue to thoroughly analyze the efficiency of the retail space and work on its further optimization,” said Mykola Astapov, Allo’s Director of Development and Formats Nikolay Astapov, Director of Development and Formats at Allo, as quoted in the press release.
According to the report, new stores were opened in Kyiv, Lviv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia and Bakhmach. In total, as of the beginning of 2025, the chain has 292 Alo, Alo Max, Alo Express stores and Mi Store stores in 100 cities of Ukraine.
Allo was established in 1998. According to the Opendatabot resource, the company’s shareholders are PE Dniproinvest 2016 (95.19%), Dmytro Derevytskyi (3.6%), and Maksym Raskin (1.21%). Derevytskyi is listed as the ultimate beneficiary.
Bloomi LLC (Odesa), a manufacturer of sanitary and hygienic paper products under the Snow Panda brand, produced UAH 406.13 million worth of products in 2024, up 10.6% from 2023.
According to statistics provided by UkrPapir Association to Interfax-Ukraine, the company accelerated the growth rate of this indicator over the year, with a 3.7% increase over 11 months compared to the same period in 2023.
In terms of volume, the company’s production of toilet paper increased by 5.7% to almost 48 million rolls.
As reported, last year the main Ukrainian producers of sanitary paper products produced 640.43 million rolls of toilet paper, up 4.5% year-on-year.
Bloomi, which was registered in 2014, produces sanitary products (toilet paper, napkins, towels) based on cellulose from imported raw paper. The products are manufactured at the facilities of Omega Brokers, one of Ukraine’s leading manufacturers of detergents, disinfectants, and sanitizers.
In 2023, according to UkrPapir, the company almost doubled its production volume compared to 2022, to UAH 367.3 million.
The company is co-owned equally (25% each) by four Odesa-based entrepreneurs.
DTEK Group invested UAH 11 billion of its own funds in the restoration of thermal power plants (TPPs) and coal mining in 2024.
“UAH 3 billion was spent on the restoration of TPPs. This made it possible to return more than half of the destroyed capacities to operation before the start of the heating season,” the energy holding said in a telegram channel on Friday.
The company invested UAH 7.5 billion in the mines’ operations: capital repairs, equipment upgrades, and modernization of transport. This ensured coal reserves for the stable operation of the stations.
As the company reminded, last year Russia carried out 13 massive attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, 10 of which were aimed at DTEK’s thermal power plants. At the most critical point of the year, 90% of the facilities were destroyed.
As reported, DTEK Energy BV, the holding company of DTEK Energy, ended 2023 with a net profit of UAH 13.675 billion against a net loss of UAH 5.798 billion in 2022.
“In 2023, DTEK Energy also invested about UAH 11 billion in the repair campaign at thermal power plants and Ukrainian coal mining, which is almost twice as much as in 2022, when investments amounted to about UAH 6 billion.
