Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, earned $29.08 million in net profit in 9M2023, up 12.2 times year-on-year (y-o-y).
According to the group’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, its revenue for the first nine months increased by 36.3% to $123.06 million, mainly due to higher prices for its products.
Gross profit for January-September this year increased by almost 2.8 times to $42.64 million, operating profit – by 8.2 times to $29.65 million.
It is noted that such an increase in profitability was also achieved by reducing the cost of sales from $66.16 million to $57.40 million due to good feed prices and the devaluation of the hryvnia.
The stability of national currencies also led to Ovostar’s total profit of $29.08 million in the first 9 months of this year, compared to a total loss of $25.16 million in the same period last year, when the hryvnia exchange rate fell.
The group also reported that its debt on bank loans since the beginning of the year has decreased from $10.93 million to $2.46 million, and is currently represented by a UAH 90 million loan from Credit Agricole Bank under the state program at a rate of 13.05% per annum with maturity at the end of March 2024, while the company has fully repaid its obligations to Ukrsibbank and OTP Bank.
Ovostar’s free cash flow jumped to $58.44 million from $12.17 million at the beginning of the year and $5.92 million a year earlier, including the equivalent of $19.77 million in hryvnia from $0.90 million, and $33.89 million in Latvia from $4.76 million.
According to the report, the share of egg sales in revenue slightly decreased to 69.0% from 69.5% in 9M2017, while the share of egg products increased from 30.5% to 31%. At the same time, the share of egg exports in total revenue increased from 34.9% to 45.5%, and the share of egg products exports increased from 56.6% to 60.3%.
As a result, Ovostar’s total export revenue for January-September this year reached 50% of total revenue, compared to 41.5% a year earlier.
The company, which had previously announced the suspension of its investment program amid the ongoing Russian military invasion of Ukraine and the overall unfavorable situation in the national economy, invested $8.88 million in 9M2017 against $5.42 million in 9M2016, with the lion’s share of all investments again in biological assets.
In mid-June 2011, the group’s holding company, Ovostar Union N.V., conducted an IPO of 25% of its shares on the WSE and raised $33.2 million. The majority stake of 67.93% is owned by Prime One Capital Limited, which is controlled by its CEO Boris Belikov and Chairman of the Board of Directors Vitaliy Veresenko.
In January-September of this year, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited significantly increased its stake in Ovostar from 9.09% to 27.51% by withdrawing from the shareholders’ list Generali Otwarty Fundusz Emerytalny (10.93%) and AVIVA Otwarty Fundusz Emerytalny (5.02%).
As reported, Ovostar earned $6.09 million in net profit in 2022, which is 3.7 times more than in 2021. At the same time, revenue increased by 1.7% to $135.63 mln.
In the first half of 2023, the company earned $20.63 million in net profit, while the same period in 2022 ended with a net loss of $19.78 million. Its revenue for the six months increased by 56.8% to $88.69 million.
Bulgaria has authorized licensed imports of Ukrainian sunflower, rapeseed, corn and wheat, according to the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Bulgaria.
According to the report, during an online meeting on Friday, the Ministers of Agriculture of Bulgaria and Ukraine Kirill Vatev and Nikolay Solsky agreed to implement a licensed export regime for sunflower, rapeseed, corn and wheat seeds and agreed on the details of its application.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Food has kept its promise to limit imports of these agricultural products as much as possible until November 30, according to the Memorandum signed between the government and the Initiative Committee of Protesting Farmers,” the Bulgarian ministry quoted Minister Vatev as saying.
He emphasized that after this period, the two countries will “strictly monitor that there are no market distortions and that the interests of Bulgarian producers, processors and consumers are not undermined.”
Imports and data exchange between the two countries will continue, the Bulgarian ministry emphasized.
As reported, in November 2023, the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine Solsky expressed the opinion that Bulgaria, which refrained from imposing a unilateral ban after September 15, could become the first frontline country to lift the ban on Ukrainian agricultural products.
In his opinion, the crop that Bulgaria will be ready to import from Ukraine will be sunflower. In Bulgaria, in the fall of 2023, a compromise was reached between farmers and processors to open the market for imports of Ukrainian sunflower from December 1. By this time, local sunflower oil producers, according to the Bulgarian government, will have to buy back the sunflower seeds produced by farmers, and they will need an additional 1.5 million tons of raw materials.
Earlier, Stepan Kapshuk, head of the industry association Ukroliyaprom, told Interfax-Ukraine that Bulgaria has 16 oil extraction plants that have significantly increased production in the 2022 season and intend to develop sunflower oil exports using sunflower seeds imported from Ukraine.
On September 15, the European Commission announced that it would not extend the restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine to five neighboring EU countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia) under certain conditions that will help avoid a new sharp increase in supplies.
The restrictions were introduced on May 2, 2023, and applied to imports of wheat, rapeseed, sunflower, and corn. These five Eastern European EU member states argued that Ukrainian agricultural products, when imported duty-free into the EU, were being deposited in their countries and were harming their local agricultural sectors.
After the restrictions were lifted, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia imposed unilateral bans. Poland expanded its list of banned products to include rapeseed cake and meal, as well as corn bran, wheat flour, and derivatives. Hungary extended the list to 24 commodity items.
Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the WTO, accusing Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia of discriminatory treatment of its agricultural products.
Ukraine is currently negotiating a mechanism for licensing exports of Ukrainian agricultural products with mandatory verification in each of the five countries.
Exports from Ukraine by sea and river transport in November increased by 70.7% compared to October, to 5.905 million tons, according to the State Customs Service, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko posted on Facebook.
According to the data, imports by this mode of transport also increased last month, but not as significantly – by 8.2%, to 495.2 thousand tons.
Exports by rail in November decreased by 17.9% to 2.535 million tons, while imports increased by 10.6% to 561.3 thousand tons.
Due to the blockade of Polish carriers, exports by road fell by 26.7% to 783 thousand tons last month, while imports fell by 23.5% to 967.1 thousand tons.
In total, exports from Ukraine in November increased by 21.2% to 9.232 million tons, while imports decreased by 6.4% to 2.169 million tons.
However, in monetary terms, export growth last month was not as significant, up 9.6% to $2.896 billion, as the specific value of automotive exports is significantly higher than that of maritime exports.
For the same reason, in monetary terms, imports fell by 10.7% to $4.676 billion in November, which somewhat improved the situation with Ukraine’s negative trade balance, which had been expanding strongly earlier this year.
The curfew for the winter holidays in Kyiv will be in effect as usual – from 00:00 to 05:00, the Kyiv City Military Administration’s telegram channel reported on Sunday.
“There will be no mass events in Kyiv on Christmas and New Year’s Day – no fairs, no celebrations. Such a decision was made by the Kyiv Defense Council,” the message says.
At the same time, a Christmas tree will be installed on St. Sophia Square in the center of Kyiv at the expense of patrons. Installation work is scheduled to begin on Sunday, December 3.
“The opening will be on December 6, St. Nicholas Day. The Christmas tree will be installed exclusively at the expense of patrons – without spending budget funds on the arrangement of the Christmas tree and electricity,” the military administration said.
“Nova Poshta, the leader in express delivery in Ukraine, has opened a Nova Post post office in Brno, the third branch of the network in the Czech Republic, the company’s press service said on Friday.
“This is just the beginning of our development. Next year, we plan to open branches in 4 more Czech cities,” said Vladimir Sterenchuk, CEO of Nova Post in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
According to him, in 2024, Nova Post branches will appear in Pilsen, Ostrava, Liberec and Český Budějovice.
At the new Brno branch, customers can send and receive documents and parcels weighing up to 30 kg from Ukraine. Delivery time to Ukraine is 5 days or more.
As reported, Nova Post entered the Czech market in June and opened two branches in Prague at once – a cargo branch weighing up to 1,000 kg and a postal branch weighing up to 30 kg, and launched a courier delivery service weighing up to 1,000 kg. In 6 months, the company delivered 30 thousand items.
In mid-November, Volodymyr Popereshnyuk, co-owner of Nova Poshta, announced that Nova Post plans to enter the markets of Italy, France, and Austria by the end of this year.
As of the beginning of November, Nova Poshta’s network in Ukraine included nearly 11,000 branches and 14.6,000 post offices.
The group of companies includes Ukrainian and foreign companies, including Nova Poshta, NP Logistic, NovaPay payment system and Nova Poshta Global.
Sanctioned assets will be sold through online auctions in the state electronic trading system Prozorro.Sale, the relevant Procedure for the management of sanctioned assets was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at the request of the Ministry of Economy at the end of November 2023.
“The government is consistently implementing the best practices of managing state assets through their sale at transparent and competitive electronic auctions,” commented Deputy Minister of Economy Oleksiy Sobolev.
According to him, the Procedure creates a comprehensive legislative framework for the management of various assets related to the aggressor country, as well as increases the confidence of potential investors in the public property management system and helps attract long-term investments, which is a priority for the coming years.
The Ministry of Economy reminded that the government approved this decision pursuant to Law 3137-IX, which has been in force since June this year, amending the sanctions legislation, and now the law and the Procedure determine the procedures for the sale of the recovered sanctioned property – assets owned by residents of states that carry out armed aggression against Ukraine.
According to these documents, the State Property Fund (SPF) will organize electronic auctions for the sale of sanctioned property in the Prozorro.Sale system, and the proceeds from its sale and lease will go to the accounts of the Fund for Liquidation of the Consequences of Armed Aggression.
“The SPF has been selling state property at online auctions in the Prozorro.Sale system for more than five and a half years, and during this time the state budget has received almost UAH 12 billion. The sale of sanctioned property through ProZorro.Sale will also allow for its transparent and competitive management in favor of the state,” said CEO of ProZorro.Sale Serhii But.
He reminded that the Cabinet of Ministers has already approved decisions on the sale of seized assets managed by the ARMA and confiscated Russian assets through the Prozorro.Sale system.
It is specified that participants in the auctions for the sale of sanctioned assets will be able to participate in them by registering through one of the platforms accredited in the Prozorro.Sale system, the current list of which is always available on the prozorro.sale website, where all information on online auctions for the sale of sanctioned assets will be posted.
The function of the state electronic trading system Prozorro.Sale is to ensure that no one can interfere with the bidding process, that everyone has equal access to the auction, and that anyone can follow online auctions in real time, the release says.
Prozorro.Sale is 100% state-owned and subordinated to the Ministry of Economy, and operates an electronic trading system that hosts online auctions for the sale of public assets. For more than seven years of operation, Prozorro.Sale online auctions have helped to raise more than UAH 80 billion to the budgets of various levels.
