Astarta Agroholding, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has raised up to $60m in a loan from state-owned Oschadbank for the construction of a soybean processing plant in the Poltava region.
“The raised funds will be used to finance an investment project to build a new soybean processing plant in Globino (Poltava region) to produce soy protein concentrate,” the company said on its website on Tuesday.
It is specified that the credit limit of $60 mln is granted to the agricultural holding for seven years.
As reported, the director of business development and investor relations of the group of companies Julia Bereshchenko at the conference-call with investors and analysts on the results of the company’s work for the first nine months of 2023 informed that investments for the construction of the plant will be distributed for three years – the current and two subsequent years. “Astarta intends to finance the project primarily through free cash flow. The Globino plant is expected to produce up to 100,000 tons of concentrated soy protein per year.
“Astarta” announced the start of construction of this line in mid-September 2021. The GPP itself was commissioned in early 2014, with a design processing capacity of 230 thousand tons per year. The plant is capable of producing about 160,000 tons of high-protein soybean meal, 40,000 tons of soybean oil and 9,000 tons of pelletized shell annually. The plant also includes finished product storage facilities and a 42,000-ton elevator and the necessary utilities, roads and railroads. Before the war, more than 80% of the GPP’s production was supplied to the EU, Middle and Far East countries. The main part of soybeans for processing is grown by agrofirms of the agroholding.
In the fall of 2021, Bereshchenko pointed out that the construction of an additional soybean deep processing line at GPP will double EBITDA in the soybean segment, as well as increase revenue.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar mills, agricultural farms with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
The agroholding earned EUR1.24 mln of net profit in the third quarter of 2023, which is 27.7 times less than in the same period of 2022. Astarta’s revenue decreased by 14.4% to EUR104.75m, gross profit decreased by 2.7 times to EUR26.96m, operating profit decreased by 7.6 times to EUR6.79m, and EBITDA decreased by 42.7% to EUR97.25m.
Thanks to a significantly better performance in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, for the first nine months of 2023 as a whole, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR55.97m on revenue growth of 14.8% to EUR392.00m. The company’s gross profit increased by 3.0% to EUR151.91m, while operating profit decreased by 15.9% to EUR79.91m and EBITDA by 10.8% to EUR116.63m.
KP “Zaporozhelektrotrans” on December 22 announced its intention to conclude a contract with IC “VUSO” for services of compulsory civil liability insurance of owners of land vehicles (trolleybuses and streetcars).
As reported in the system of electronic procurement Prozorro, the expected price for the purchase of services – UAH 570,929 thousand, the price offer of the company – UAH 236,310 thousand.
NJSIC ‘Oranta’ also took part in the tender with the offer of UAH 159,4 th.
IC “VUSO” was founded in 2001. It owns 50 licenses: 34 – for voluntary and 16 – for compulsory types of insurance, is represented in all regions of Ukraine. It is a member of ITSBU and UFS, a participant of the agreement on direct settlement of losses and a member of the Nuclear Insurance Pool.
Profit of state-owned Ukrgasbank (Kiev) for January-November 2023 amounted to UAH 4.08 billion, while the same period last year the state bank ended with a net loss of UAH 3.75 billion, the financial institution reported on Tuesday.
It is specified that the operating profit of the bank for January-November this year before deductions to reserves and taxation amounted to UAH 4.3 billion.
According to the release, Ukrgasbank’s assets increased by UAH 35 billion since the beginning of the year and reached UAH 166.7 billion by the end of November 2023, while the portfolio of attracted customer funds increased by UAH 29.9 billion since January and amounted to UAH 142.7 billion.
It is specified that the most significant increase in the portfolio of funds of corporate business – by UAH 26.2 billion, up to UAH 85.5 billion, in particular, from small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) – by UAH 4 billion, up to UAH 25.4 billion.
The bank added that the portfolio of retail customers’ term funds in hryvnia amounted to UAH 9.8 billion at the end of November, having increased by UAH 3.5 billion since the beginning of the year.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2023, Ukrgasbank ranked 5th in terms of total assets (UAH 166.44 billion) among 63 banks operating in the country.
In 2023, Ukraine attracted $42 billion in external financing to cover budgetary needs and a record amount of borrowing in the domestic market, Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said.
“This made it possible to finance all the necessary expenditures, first of all for the security and defense forces…,” he said at the Business Breakfeast with Volodymyr Fedorin on Wednesday.
The minister expressed hope that revenue targets would be met, although he said that in the case of customs it was “less likely.”
Marchenko noted that Ukraine has fulfilled its obligations under the Extended Fund Facility program with the IMF and EU macro-financial assistance.
In general, he stated that the implementation of the 2023 state budget seemed much calmer.
“Now we are less worried about 2025 than about 2024,” the Minister of Finance said when asked about the forecast for the next year’s budget plans.
He emphasized that it is necessary to stay in the program with the IMF and to achieve the opening of the Ukraine Facility from the European Union, which will solve the problem of 2025, which is associated with great uncertainty, in particular due to elections in partner countries, by 50%.
According to Marchenko, Ukraine should take steps to reduce its dependence on external partners.
“The key is the coherence of the government team’s actions in the broad sense of the word,” he said.
As reported earlier, Marchenko indicated that Ukraine’s need for external financing in 2024 was reduced from the initial $41 billion to $37.3 billion due to measures to maximize state budget revenues, activate the domestic debt market, and reduce all capital expenditures of the state budget.
In 2022, Ukraine attracted $32.1 billion in external financing.
The National Bank of Ukraine on December 25 included Insurance Broker Inlex LLC in the State Register of Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers, the regulator’s website reported.
According to the Opendatabot website, Insurance Broker Inlex was registered in Odessa in January 2023. The ultimate beneficiary and owner is Sergey Gorbunenko.
The authorized capital is UAH 500 thousand.
As reported, by the end of November 2023, 55 insurance and reinsurance brokers were registered in the State Register, but in early December the National Bank of Ukraine excluded 23 brokers from the State Register of Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers.
Insurance Broker Inlex LLC, Sergey Gorbunenko, The National Bank of Ukraine
Oil prices are correcting downward after updating December highs the day before, investors continue to assess the situation in the Red Sea.
The cost of February futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures exchange as of 7:03 a.m. Q2 is $81.04 per barrel, which is $0.03 (0.04%) lower than at the close of the previous session. At the end of previous trading, these contracts rose by $2 (2.5%), to the maximum since November 30, $81.07 per barrel.
WTI crude oil futures for February at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by $0.15 (0.2%) to $75.42 per barrel. On Tuesday, those contracts were up $2.01 (2.7%) to $75.57 a barrel, also the highest since Nov. 30.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked another cargo ship in the Red Sea, Al-Arabiya TV reported Tuesday, citing rebel military spokesman Yahya Sarea. He said the crew of the commercial ship MSC United ignored warning signals three times, after which the rebels fired rockets at it.
Also on Tuesday, the United Kingdom’s Office of Maritime Trade Operations said there were explosions and rocket launches in the Red Sea near the port of Hodeida.
Earlier, Danish transportation and logistics company A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS said it plans to resume shipping in the Red Sea after an international ship security mission. Managing partner of SPI Asset Management Stephen Innes, whose words are quoted by MarketWatch, called the mission a positive step toward restoring safe maritime transportation in the region.
