“Kernel, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, processed 811 thsd tonnes of sunflower seeds in the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2024, up 24% year-on-year, when the company’s operations were disrupted by power outages due to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“Two out of eight plants of the agricultural holding, which are located in Kharkiv region near the border with Russia, remain unavailable for work,” the company said in a financial report on its website on Monday.
According to the report, sales of sunflower oil in the second quarter of FY2024 increased by 13% compared to the same period last year and exceeded 388 thousand tons. High volumes of sunflower seeds processing are supported by various export logistics options, including deep-water Ukrainian Black Sea ports. At the same time, sales of bottled sunflower oil accounted for 6% of total sales.
In the first half of FY2024, Kernel’s elevator volumes increased by 21% year-on-year to 2.5 mln tonnes as the agricultural holding managed to complete the harvesting campaign in its Agriculture division on time, unlike the postponed harvesting campaign a year earlier.
According to the agroholding, it managed to increase export transshipment volumes through its terminals by 11.2 times in October-December 2023, up to 1,805 thousand tons, using the temporary commercial shipping corridor created by the Ukrainian Navy. This volume includes transshipment of grain, sunflower oil and meal, as well as transshipment services provided to third parties (65 thousand tons in the second quarter of FY2024).
This figure, according to Kernel, is 5% higher than the same period last year and is explained by the success of the agricultural holding, which was achieved during FY2023 as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
However, export terminals operated below pre-war levels as they suffered from damage caused by Russian missile strikes on Kernel’s port infrastructure in the summer of 2023.
Due to the resumption of transshipment volumes at the export terminal, the volume of grain exports from Ukraine in the second quarter of FY 2024 increased 8.4 times compared to the previous quarter, reaching 1.705 thousand tons, the agricultural holding stated.
As reported, before the war, Kernel was the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil (about 7% of world production) and its exports (about 12%). It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. It is also engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
In the first quarter of FY2024, the company posted a net loss of $30.9 million, while the previous year ended with a net profit of $162 million, with revenue down 17% to $564 million.
Druzhkovka Metalware Plant PrJSC (Donetsk region) intends to pay UAH 25 million out of the profit of previous periods.
The relevant issue is on the agenda of the extraordinary general remote meeting of the company’s shareholders scheduled for February 22, 2024.
As reported, the company reduced its net profit by 69.1% year-on-year to UAH 33.832 million in 2022, with retained earnings of the plant amounting to UAH 404.665 million by the end of 2022.
Druzhkovka Hardware Plant produces machine-building and railway fasteners.
According to the fourth quarter of 2022, the company’s shares were owned by an individual Alexey Spiridonov, who held 14.9949%, Elena Mishchenko-Solona (a resident of Spain) – 13.0304%, Irina Mishchenko – 24.5167%, Sergey Popkov – 5.8611%, Anton Malikov – 9.75%, Elena Malikova – 8.25%, Valery and Dmitry Malikov – 9.774% each.
The authorized capital of the company is UAH 3.323 million, the nominal value of 1 share is UAH 0.05.
Import of goods in Jan-Oct 2023 in most important positions to previous 2022
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine has announced a privatization auction for the sale of the Gannopolskiy distillery (Khmelnytskyi region) on January 25, the press service of the agency said.
According to the message, the asset consists of 48 real estate objects located on a land plot with a total area of 16.11 hectares. The main of them are the main building with the area of 1250.9 sq. m, vodka bottling shop and cleaning department – 1392.4 sq. m, stables – 529 sq. m, malt house – 1171.1 sq. m, grain warehouse – 1198 sq. m and others.
The starting price of the object is UAH 3.8 mln.
You can register for the auction until January 24.
A search of the office of investment company Concorde Capital without a warrant from an investigating judge on January 18 resulted in the seizure of employees’ personal phones and computers, as well as about a dozen folders of materials that do not relate to the time and territory of the criminal proceedings, the company’s press service said.
“So, the office itself is now paralyzed, and this entails inevitable losses and loss of clients. In addition, it is impossible to imagine the normal operation of an investment company without a head,” the head of the press service, Anna Dyakonova, told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
Earlier in the day, State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Director Oleksiy Sukhachov said that the procedural actions of law enforcement officers in the case of Concorde Capital CEO and founder Igor Mazepa did not lead to blocking or limiting the business, and the company can fulfill its obligations in full.
“At the moment, there have been no actions that would block the business or limit the activities of the Concorde Capital investment fund, which allows it to continue to operate and fulfill its investment obligations in full,” said the SBI director at a briefing in Kyiv.
For her part, Dyakonova added that one of the clients has suspended a loan agreement for construction in the SHELEST project.
According to her, Mazepa also had a number of meetings scheduled in Davos to attract investment in Kryvyi Rih Cement, but now the implementation of the company’s expansion project is in question.
She also said that Mazepa’s lawyers have already appealed the court’s January 19 ruling to place him under arrest with an alternative bail of UAH 349 million, and confirmed that the head of Concorde Capital’s house in his small homeland in Chernihiv region burned down.
As reported, on January 18, SBI officers together with the National Police detained Mazepa on the Ukrainian-Polish border on charges of organizing a scheme to illegally seize 2.4 hectares, which allegedly contain hydraulic structures of critical infrastructure – Kyiv HPP, and currently house the premium cottage community Goodlife Park. It was noted that three more people, including Mazepa’s brother, were detained in different regions of Ukraine, and searches were conducted at the office of Concorde Capital and the offices of some of its employees.
According to the SBI, at the end of 2023, eight suspects were served with a similar case involving 7 hectares of land in the neighborhood and other people were arrested. According to the database of court decisions, these are land plots involved “in the process of implementing a construction project of elite housing – a premium club cottage town Riviera Village,” which was originally developed by the Dragon Ukrainian Properties and Development (DUPD).
The SBI indicated that the defendants face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has put up more than 1 million cubic meters of timber for additional auctions, which will be held on the principle of Dutch auctions, the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets said on Facebook. According to him, this record-breaking amount of wood was accumulated at the expense of unsold products in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“Uncertainty with the borders plus the holiday season in the EU reduced the demand for wood. Many processors have taken a break…. Demand is gradually recovering, but the situation remains difficult in some market segments,” stated the company’s CEO.
Bolokhovets said that due to the blockade of the borders, the losses of the branches of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” exceeded UAH 1 billion over three months.
“If not for the timely reform, dozens of forestry enterprises would have been on the verge of bankruptcy in January. It is only thanks to subsidies from the central level that employees of all (!) our branches receive their salaries on time. All branches have working capital to carry out their activities, no one has stopped,” he emphasized.
Speaking about the plans of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” for 2024, Bolokhovets noted that amid unfavorable assessments of the timber market prospects for both processors and sellers of raw materials, the company intends to support the market. There are no plans to reduce harvesting. On the contrary, more than 1 million cubic meters of wood from the closure of state processing will be added to the last year’s trading volume.
“Forests of Ukraine will also continue to work to reduce costs, increase efficiency and eliminate corruption.
“This means mandatory assessment and justification of investments, the most open and competitive procurement, efficient use of equipment and other resources. Sale of unprofitable assets, optimization of the administrative staff. Reducing the cost of the resource through the construction of new forest roads. Finally, eradication of such phenomena as substitution of timber grades and other manifestations of corruption,” stated the CEO of the state enterprise.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of raw wood at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
