Ukroliya LLC (Chernechy Yar, Poltava region) on August 10 agreed with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) that the company will raise a loan of EUR 16 million to finance its capital expenditures, working capital requirements, as well as to restructure existing debt, according to a press release from the EBRD.
“The main objective of the project is to support the company’s growth plans and its strategy to expand further in more profitable, premium (organic and high-oleic) and value-added (bottled and refined) sunflower oil sub-segments,” the bank said in the press release.
In addition, as part of the project, Ukroliya, will set up an accredited in-house training centre, in collaboration with local education partners, which will support the company in meeting its skills needs and provide training opportunities for people in Poltava region.
According to the EBRD, the project will support modernisation of the company’s production facilities, including the installation of a biomass boiler and processes to reduce oil content in wastes and reprocess materials for filtering, as well as the increase in production of organic vegetable oil and purchases of organic oilseeds.
The EBRD said that the total cost of this project is EUR 16 million, of which Ukroliya will receive the total required amount.
The press release does not contain other details of the transaction.
Ukroliya LLC was founded in 2001. It is engaged in the production and sale of packaged and bulk sunflower oil, sunflower cake, and husk. Its production facilities are located in the townships of Dykanka and Zinkiv (both in Poltava region).
As of Monday morning, 417 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Ukraine, with 248 people reported as recovered, while 14 people died, the press service of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine said.
“During the day on August 15, 2021, some 417 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease COVID-19 were recorded in Ukraine (of which there are 31 children and 10 health workers). Also, over the past day: 433 people were hospitalized, 14 people died, and 248 people recovered,” said the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on the Telegram channel.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) has decided to stop flying through Afghan airspace on flights to Delhi (India) as crisis in this country has aggravated.
“Back on [last] Friday, the airline conducted its own assessment of the risks of flying above the territory of Afghanistan in connection with the current situation in the country. Taking into account the identified increase in the level of threat to flights, UIA decided to changed course and exited Afghanistan’s airspace on flights to Delhi to ensure an adequate security of flights,” the airline told Interfax-Ukraine.
UIA said that these flights were operated under the Air Bubbles agreement on Tuesdays and Sundays; due to the charge of the course, the flight time will increase by about two hours. Previously, it was about seven hours.
To date, a number of international airlines have already decided to reroute flights out of the airspace of Afghanistan.
Kabul International Airport on Sunday suspended servicing commercial flights, the Associated Press reported on the evening of the same day, citing representatives of the U.S. forces.
At the same time, the evacuation from Kabul secured by the U.S. forces continues.
Ukraine expects to start free trade negotiations with the United States during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko has said.
“During the president’s visit to the United States, we want to reach an agreement to start free trade negotiations with the United States,” Liubchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, Ukraine has carried out preliminary work to expand the free trade area (FTA) with Canada.
“I hope this year we will complete negotiations on expanding the FTA to include services and mutual protection of investments,” the first deputy prime minister said.
He added that Canada is interested in this, since it has great investment potential, concentrated in private pension funds.
Spokesperson of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko has said that some of the citizens of Afghanistan, evacuated from this country to Ukraine, asked to be granted refugee status.
“If we talk about foreigners, those citizens who had the proper passport documents were immediately registered to enter Ukraine, in particular, some of the citizens of Afghanistan had a residence permit in Ukraine. Some of the foreigners, again citizens of Afghanistan, applied for protection to be granted refugee status in Ukraine,” Demchenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
According to him, many of the citizens of Afghanistan later went to other countries, in particular, to France, Turkey and several other countries of the world.
“Some of those who still need protection or stay and have nowhere to go, have now been transferred to representatives of the State Migration Service, who will deal with them in the future,” Demchenko explained.
He indicated that the placement of such citizens would be handled by the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
Also, the spokesperson of the State Border Guard Service noted that citizens who arrived in Ukraine underwent all preliminary checks, since their departure from Afghanistan took place with the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He clarified that other state bodies, including law enforcement agencies, were involved in such checks.
As reported, the Ukrainian plane, which was in Afghanistan, evacuated eight Ukrainian citizens from Kabul, and also evacuated another 71 people, including citizens of the Netherlands, Croatia, Belarus, and Afghanistan. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, up to 50 Ukrainian citizens continue to stay in Afghanistan.
In January-June 2021, the KSG Agro agricultural holding increased its net profit 48 times, year-over-year, to $13.7 million, of which the group of companies received $12.86 million through the sale of a number of its assets.
According to the holding’s statement on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Sunday, its revenue for the specified period decreased by 12%, to $6.81 million.
“In May 2021, the group sold its subsidiaries Soyuz-3 LLC, Agrofirma Vesna LLC, UAIH Trading House LLC. Agrofirma Vesna LLC and UAIH Trading House LLC are inactive organizations. Soyuz-3 LLC is a production organization engaged in crop production, but acquired with large commitments and remains outside the group’s ownership structure until such obligations are settled,” the company said in a statement.
It is specified that proceeds from the disposal of the subsidiary company Soyuz-3 LLC (Novopokrovka, Dnipropetrovsk region) from the agricultural holding amounted to $6.5 million, UAIH Trading House LLC some $4.27 million, Agrofirma Vesna LLC some $2.01 million.
KSG Agro for the reporting period reduced gross profit by 27%, to $2.48 million, operating profit by 28%, to $1.89 million, its EBITDA decreased by 22%, to $2.69 million.
According to the statement, the company in the first half of the year reduced profit in the crop segment by 37%, to $1.46 million, in the livestock segment by 19.4%, to $ 700,000, while in the segment “other operations” (production of fuel pellets and heat energy) increased by almost 44.5%, to $310,000.
“In 2021, the group started a project to gradually renew the sow population in Ukraine to increase the birth rate of piglets. To this end, the group is negotiating with Suisag, a Swiss pig genetics company, and Genesus, a Canadian genetic company. As of the date of these financial statements, the group expects to receive first batches of sows from Genesus,” the company said in the statement.
The agricultural holding said in the report that it is considering an international investment project with several partners to build a breeding pig farm in Kazakhstan for 50,000 pigs with an estimated total cost of EUR 30 million.
At the same time, KSG Agro said the total debt of the group of companies in U.S. dollars as of June 30, 2021 decreased by almost 44.5%, year-over-year, to $15.3 million, while it increased from UAH 82,000 to UAH 14.8 million
“In 2020, the group has already managed to increase its net current assets from negative $23.5 million as of January 1, 2020 to negative $6.3 million as of December 31, 2020. The group plans to complete the second phase of the process by the end of 2021, bringing net current assets to a positive value. As of June 30, 2021, the total balance of ‘other financial liabilities’ compared to December 31, 2020 decreased even more,” the group said.
According to the report, the majority shareholder and head of the board of directors of the agricultural holding KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov, who owns it through Olbis Investments Ltd. (Panama), on August 2, sold 1 million shares (6.66%) of the group of companies to two legal entities with Polish jurisdiction, after the transaction, the share of Olbis Investments Ltd. amounted to 57.96% of the charter capital.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding, as well as in the production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21,000 hectares.
According to the agricultural holding itself, it is one of the top five pork producers in Ukraine.
