Lutsk Foods PJSC (Volyn region), one of the largest producers of grocery products in Ukraine, received UAH 45.981 million in net profit in 2023, up 8.5% year-on-year.
According to the company’s report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), its revenue last year increased by 19.9% to UAH 856.515 million, debt obligations decreased by 28.2% to UAH 93.892 million, and assets – by 4.5% to UAH 265.767 million.
During the year, the company increased its staff by three employees to 355 people.
According to the report, at the annual meeting of shareholders on April 18, shareholders will be asked to leave the profit of UAH 45,981 thousand received in 2023 undistributed.
In addition, the shareholders are asked to authorize the company’s chairman of the board to enter into significant transactions during the year to attract investments in the modernization of production facilities and production premises, other agreements, the maximum aggregate value of each of which should not exceed UAH 200 million, with the provision of movable and immovable property of the company as security for performance without limiting its value.
Lutsk Foods PJSC was founded in 1997 on the basis of the Lutsk City Food Processing Plant, established in 1945. The company produces a wide range of tomato paste-based sauces, as well as ketchup, adjika, mustard, mayonnaise and various types of vinegar under the Runa, Ridniy Krai and Sribnytsia trademarks. Since 2009, the company has been cooperating with a number of retail chains and produces more than 40 products under their private labels. Lutsk Foods exports its products to the markets of more than 20 countries.
On Wednesday, the state-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) sold a complex of buildings and structures and a land plot in Kyiv region to the only bidder through the OpenMarket electronic trading system (SE SETAM of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine) at a starting price of UAH 108.412 million.
As reported, the Boryspil Automobile Plant of Etalon Corporation in Prolisky village (Boryspil district, Kyiv region) was put up for auction.
According to SETAM, 8 bidders initially submitted applications for participation in the auction, but seven of them were rejected due to non-payment of the guarantee fee.
The total area of the lot is 18.67 thousand square meters. It includes, among other things, the main production building (7,679.9 sq m), a production building (644.8 sq m), an administrative and amenity building with a canteen (3,213.6 sq m), a spare parts warehouse (4,016.6 sq m) and other buildings.
The land plot has an area of 7.5205 hectares. Purpose: for the placement and operation of the main auxiliary and auxiliary buildings and structures of the processing, machine-building and other industries.
As noted, the buildings and structures are in a suitable technical condition for operation. The facility is fully operational as a production and warehouse complex with an administrative part. Its territory is fenced and guarded.
The winning bidder paid UAH 10.84 million as a guarantee fee and, according to the bidding protocol, must transfer UAH 99.197 million to the seller’s account by May 1 this year.
Boryspil Automobile Plant was established in 2002. The Etalon corporation organized the production of small class buses on the chassis of the Indian TATA. Then the production of buses was transferred to the corporation’s Chernihiv Automobile Plant, which now produces buses of various classes and trolleybuses.
According to the register of court decisions, in January 2023, BAS PJSC was declared bankrupt and liquidation proceedings were initiated.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), as of the third quarter of 2023, Bodmin AG (registered in Switzerland) owned 74.37% of BAZ shares, while another 22.81% was owned by Kirayne LLC (Kyiv).
The US National Academy of Sciences is working to create a new multimillion-dollar joint science and innovation fund for Ukraine, US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker said.
“It will fund specialized cutting-edge research in the service of Ukraine’s economic development,” she said at the U.S.-Ukraine Partnership Forum on Wednesday in Washington.
She said similar initiatives by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences have already been implemented for Israel, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Mexico.
“This is in addition to $230 million in support for Ukraine’s private sector, including new funding for farmers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in rural and underbanked communities,” Pritzker added.
According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences website, it is launching the Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine, supported by about $8 million from the Simons Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and other U.S. philanthropic organizations, with the goal of raising at least $15 million to support the first three years of operation. ETH Zürich is also in the works to create it.
It is noted that the Foundation will provide merit-based grants to individuals and organizations for a range of activities, including: workshops to address scientific issues critical to Ukraine’s long-term renewal; bilateral and multilateral initiatives to advance science policy practice.
It is also envisaged to support Institutes on priority S&T topics contributing to the future of Ukraine; fellowships and research grants to support early and intra-career scientific exchanges; and training on the commercialization of scientific research
It is envisioned that it will include grant funds to support the participation of Ukrainian researchers in international scientific research.
It is stated that the Fund will be managed by a Secretariat based at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which will attract partners in Ukraine, additional funds, manage the application process, allocate and monitor the Fund’s expenditures, and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the Fund’s activities.
Astarta Agroholding cut its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9m in 2023, while its EBITDA fell by 6.1% to EUR145.77m, the company said in its annual report on Wednesday evening.
“EBITDA margin decreased by 7 percentage points (p. p.) year-on-year to 23%, reflecting lower crop prices, higher selling expenses and a change in the basis of supply in the sale of crops,” the document said.
According to it, Astarta’s revenue last year increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93m, gross profit by 7.8% to EUR223.59m, while operating profit decreased by 12.2% to EUR95.78m.
It is specified that the Agriculture segment contributed 39% of consolidated revenue or EUR240 million in 2023 (+33% y-o-y), while the Livestock segment contributed 7% of total revenue or EUR43 million in 2023 (+10% y-o-y).
Sales of the Sugar Production segment grew by 28% y-o-y to EUR199m and accounted for 32% of total revenue in the period under review, while the Soy Processing segment contributed 20% of Astarta’s revenue or EUR122m, unchanged y-o-y.
According to the report, export sales accounted for about 53% of consolidated revenue or EUR325m last year.
The lower gross profit growth is due to the lower effect of the revaluation of the fair value of biological assets in the cost of revenue (EUR60 mln in 2023 vs. EUR73 mln in 2022), reflecting cheaper commodities and changes in exchange rates.
It is indicated that in UAH terms, Astarta increased net profit by 11.9% to UAH2bn 452.81m in 2023 on revenue growth of 39.3% to UAH24bn 446.26m.
According to the report, cash flow from operating activities amounted to EUR91m vs. EUR39m in 2022 due to lower working capital outflows, while cash flow from investment activities increased 2.6 times to EUR40m, with the largest investments in soybean processing and sugar production.
Net financial debt (net of lease liabilities) declined by 10% last year to EUR39m, while net debt increased slightly by 3% to EUR156m due to higher lease liabilities of EUR118m vs. EUR109m in 2022.
As reported, Astarta reported EUR65.16m net profit in 2022, down 46.8% from 2021. The holding’s EBITDA decreased by 23.2% to EUR154.77m in the year before last, while revenue increased by 3.8% to EUR510.07m.
In 9M 2023, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR55.97 mln, while revenue grew by 14.8% to EUR392.00 mln. EBITDA decreased by 10.8% to EUR116.63 mln.
In UAH terms, Astarta increased its net profit by 6.9% to UAH 2 bln 219.11 mln in the first 9 months of last year, while revenue grew by 37.7% to UAH 15 bln 513.56 mln.
Ukrainian construction materials manufacturers and research institutes are working to bring their products and structures used in the defense sector to NATO standards, said Konstantin Saliy, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Construction Materials Manufacturers (VSPB).
“The direction we are working on is to ensure that Ukrainian products, building materials, structures and constructions for the Ministry of Defense meet the NATO AQAP 2110 standard,” Saliy said at the roundtable “Building Materials. Preparedness for Market Needs for Recovery” at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
According to him, Ukrainian unions and associations of building materials are involved in the construction of defense structures and in the scientific and technical councils of the Defense Ministry.
“We are working, we are heard and asked. We are trying to combine the efforts of our military with specialized state research institutes to make this assistance professional. We want all the developments to be tested at training grounds and field trials to be conducted,” he explained.
The King Salman Center for Rescue and Humanitarian Assistance (KSRelief) has donated $10 million to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). King Salman Rescue and Humanitarian Relief Center (KSRelief) has donated $10 million to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to support war-affected Ukrainians in 1,200 facilities across the country with daily hot meals, according to the WFP press office.
“We are grateful to KSRelief for supporting a vital component of our emergency assistance programs in Ukraine that supports the most vulnerable Ukrainians and strengthens the local institutions and organizations that care for them,” said Marianne Ward, acting director of WFP Ukraine.
According to a press release, the agreement was signed between H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al Rabia, Advisor to the Royal Court and General Manager of KSRelief, and WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.
Saudi Arabia’s contribution will help provide 50 million meals to the institutions that WFP supports (hospitals, shelters for internally displaced persons, orphanages, neuropsychiatric and geriatric institutions, and other public or private organizations that care for vulnerable Ukrainian citizens).
“We are pleased to be part of this important emergency program to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the affected population in Ukraine. KSrelief’s humanitarian assistance will provide vital food aid to the most vulnerable communities across the country,” the press office quoted KSRelief’s Assistant General Manager for Planning and Development, Ahmed Al Baiz, as saying.
The assistance provided will allow the purchase and delivery of about 7,600 tons of food. It is noted that all products, including flour, pasta, buckwheat, oatmeal, peas, sugar and oil, are purchased from Ukraine to support the local economy and food system.
Over the next six months, WFP’s institutional feeding program plans to provide food assistance to 210,000 vulnerable Ukrainians. KSRelief’s contribution will cover a significant portion of the program’s needs – approximately 67%. This is support for 140 thousand people.
During 2023, WFP’s institutional feeding program supported 460,000 Ukrainians in Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovograd, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zakarpattya, Zaporizhzhya and Zhytomyr regions.
Institutional feeding is one of the many ways WFP supports Ukrainians affected by the war. WFP is also distributing food packages in areas close to the front line where food is hard to find or very expensive, distributing cash assistance to vulnerable Ukrainians across the country, and supporting the safe release of agricultural land mines in Kharkiv Oblast to help farmers and food producers. WFP has also chartered 25 ships to export Ukrainian grain to countries in need through the Black Sea Grain Initiative and Grain from Ukraine.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization that saves lives in emergencies and uses food aid to build a path to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, natural disasters and the effects of climate change.
