One of Ukraine’s largest grain market operators, Nibulon, has reduced its staff threefold, retained four areas of operation, focused on the introduction of new digital services and technologies, and plans to return to its pre-war share of 10% of Ukraine’s grain exports by increasing exports this year to 4 million tons from 2.5 million tons last year, said the company’s owner and CEO Andriy Vadatursky.
“Before the war, the company employed 6,000 people. When I was waiting (for the core team to move from Mykolaiv to Kyiv – IF-U), there were 4,000 employees. Now there are a little less than 2,000. This is the path to optimization and automation of numbers. When people ask, ‘What has changed for you?’, I answer that everything has changed – the entire business model has changed,” he said at the Forbes Agro 2025 conference in Kyiv on Friday.
Vadatursky noted that Nibulon currently has four main business areas: agricultural production, logistics, trading, and digitalization.
According to him, Nibulon is developing agricultural production on slightly more than 50,000 hectares, while before the war, the agricultural holding operated on 82,000 hectares. Its lost agricultural land is located in the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. In addition, before the war, the grain trader owned 28 elevators, 5 of which have been lost and 13 blocked. Nibulon’s logistics company currently operates 167 motor vehicles and 200 grain cars.
According to the company’s owner, the agricultural holding currently grows approximately 300,000 tons of grain on its own. However, in 2024, Nibulon was able to export 2.5 million tons of grain, and in 2025, it plans to supply up to 4 million tons to foreign markets.
“It is no secret that Nibulon entered the war with $530 million in loans. Currently, we have confirmed losses of $440 million, which, in addition to the loss of land and elevators, include the loss of about 140,000 tons of grain,” Vadatursky said, adding that in three years of war, the agricultural holding was able to earn $250 million and repay $160 million in debts to banks.
He assured that Nibulon intends to continue servicing its loans in 2025, despite the fact that 68% of its assets are currently not operational.
Vadatursky explained that during the war, Nibulon will focus on the efficiency of its businesses, their expansion, and vertical integration. At the same time, the main criteria will be efficiency and “streamlining by removing all inefficient components.” In addition, the grain trader will focus on the introduction of new technologies, digitalization, and artificial intelligence.
“We are targeting approximately $60-80 million in EBITDA to be able to repay all loans. To this end, we are doing everything we can to increase the amount of grain that passes through our system. And we have the ambition to return to our pre-war share of exports, which was about 10-12% of Ukraine’s total grain exports, by providing more competitive services than before the war and earning money through the introduction of technologies and increased efficiency,” the owner of the agricultural holding concluded.
Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82,000 hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries around the world. In 2021, the grain trader exported a record 5.64 million tons of agricultural products and supplied record volumes to foreign markets in August (0.7 million tons), in the fourth quarter (1.88 million tons), and in the second half of the year (3.71 million tons).
After the war began, the company was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
JSC “Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Building Plant” (KZVV, Perechin, Zakarpattia region), almost 97.7% of whose shares are owned by former MP Maksym Yefimov (Restoration of Ukraine group), earned almost UAH 1.233 billion in net profit in January-June of this year, four times more than in the first half of 2024.
According to the company’s published financial report, net income for this period increased 3.5 times to UAH 21.446 billion.
According to the company, in the first quarter of this year, it increased its net profit by 2.6 times compared to January-March 2024, to UAH 707.9 million, with net income growing 4.2 times, to UAH 10.796 billion.
Thus, in the second quarter of this year, KZV increased its net profit by 4.8 times compared to April-June 2024, to UAH 524.8 million, with revenue growing almost threefold, to UAH 10 billion 653 million.
As reported, KZVV, which was relocated from Kramatorsk to Perechin in the summer of 2022, manufactures, among other things, wind turbines (WTGs) for Friendly Wind Technology.
KZVV specializes in universal special-purpose machine tools designed for the energy, metallurgical, oil and gas industries, mechanical engineering, and rail transport, as well as machine tools for single and small-batch production. The plant has also mastered the production of towers for WPPs.
Back in 2022, KZVV’s net income was UAH 119.38 million, and its net loss was UAH 134.68 million.
At the beginning of this year, the plant employed almost 2,000 workers, compared to 296 in 2022.
The investment company umgi, part of the SCM Group, is closely studying the Spanish market and sees great opportunities for partnerships and growth there.
“Umgi’s assets have been present in the Spanish market since 2020. We are carefully researching this market and see great opportunities for partnerships and growth,” the company said in a statement.
It is also reported that umgi CEO Andrey Gorokhov will moderate a panel discussion entitled “Best Investment Strategies: Narrow Specialization or Multi-Focus Approach” at Iberia’s Private Equity Conference, which will take place on October 3 in Madrid.
The company noted that this is one of the key events in the industry, where participants will discuss how fundraising in private equity is changing; which sectors are becoming promising for investment; how value is created through strategy and strong teams; and when to choose the right moment for an exit.
As reported, in 2024, umgi focused its efforts on strategic support for its existing portfolio and expanding its international network of contacts and integrating Ukrainian businesses into European markets.
“We see our mission as being an investment bridge between Ukraine and the world, promoting higher ethical and professional standards in the industry, and developing international cooperation. In 2024, we actively worked to expand our international network among entrepreneurs, business consultants, and investors, particularly in Spain, Italy, and Poland,” said umgi CEO Andriy Gorokhov earlier.
umgi is an investment company focused on developing businesses in the raw materials and processing sectors. It was founded in 2006 by the SCM Group. Investment focus: mineral extraction; management of by-products and production waste; production of industrial goods and services. The total value of the portfolio companies is estimated at more than $500 million.
umgi’s investment portfolio covers eight assets in seven countries: Ukraine, Poland, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Serbia.
Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, intends to continue investing in the construction of its soy protein concentrate plant in 2026. These investments will amount to approximately EUR40 million, said Vyacheslav Chuk, director of commercial operations and strategic marketing at the agricultural holding.
“Our budget process is not yet complete, but the agricultural holding will definitely invest in the completion of our new project to build a soy protein concentrate plant. This is about EUR40 million, and the rest is maintenance, which will vary depending on what we focus on,” he said at the Forbes Agro 2025 conference in Kyiv on Friday.
Responding to a follow-up question about how much Astarta will invest during the year to resolve current issues, Chuk said it could be tens of millions of dollars.
In 2024, Astarta began investing in the construction of a plant for processing soybean meal into soybean protein concentrate with a capacity of 500 tons/day (about 100,000 tons per year) in the Hlobyn industrial complex (Poltava region). The agricultural holding is investing more than EUR 76 million in the purchase of equipment and technologies and will create 110 new jobs.
Astarta and its structural unit Astarta Agro Protein signed the first investment agreement with the Ukrainian government to receive compensation from the state for significant investments. Under the agreement, the state will provide the agricultural holding with a number of incentives, including exemption from import duties on new equipment, import VAT on new equipment, and income tax for up to five years.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine and is the largest sugar producer in Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares, dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Hlobine (Poltava region), seven elevators, and a biogas complex.
In the first nine months of 2024, Astarta increased its net profit by 35.1% compared to the same period in 2023, to EUR75.60 million. The agricultural holding’s revenue grew by 12.6% to EUR441.46 million, and EBITDA by 12.8% to $131.56 million.
JSC Dnipro Switch Factory (DnSZ, Dnipro), a major Ukrainian manufacturer of switches for main railway tracks, increased its net profit by 2.2 times in January-June 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, to UAH 249.16 million.
According to the financial results report on the company’s website, net sales revenue for this period increased by 24.2% to UAH 796.7 million.
DnSZ received UAH 299.7 million in profit from operating activities (2.2 times more), and gross profit amounted to UAH 299 million (+61.2%).
As reported, in the first quarter of this year, the plant increased its net profit by 2.1 times compared to the same period in 2024, to UAH 113.2 million, with revenue growing by 21.7% to UAH 415.4 million.
Thus, in the second quarter of 2025, DnSZ increased its net profit by more than 2.2 times compared to April-June 2024 – to almost UAH 136 million, while net income increased by 27.1% – to UAH 381.3 million.
Founded in 1916, Dnipro Railway Switch Factory currently manufactures various types of switches for mainline and industrial transport, subways, as well as elements of the upper track structure.
The enterprise has a full production cycle, including its own design bureau.
The plant ended 2024 with a consolidated net profit of UAH 540.41 million, which is 6% more than in 2023, of which 78% (UAH 420 million) was allocated to dividend payments. Consolidated revenue increased by 77% to UAH 1.79 billion.
According to the company’s report on its website, unconsolidated net profit increased by 6.7% to UAH 544.22 million, with revenue growing by 31.1% to UAH 2.346 billion.
Exports accounted for 5.6% of sales in 2024, with products shipped to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Baltic states.
The boiler room of Kryvyi Rih Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat to more than 345,000 residents of the northern part of the city, is undergoing major repairs in preparation for the heating season.
“The company’s specialists are replacing the steam superheaters of two steam boilers that have been in operation for 80 years. The installation of convective packages on water boilers is also underway, which will allow the necessary temperature regime of the coolant to be maintained even in severe frosts,” according to a statement on the website of Kryvyi Rih Thermal Power Plant, which is managed by Naftogaz Group.
The statement notes that modern energy-efficient pumps manufactured in Germany will also be installed, which will be responsible for high-quality water treatment and stable water chemistry.
At the same time, the thermal power plant is preparing other facilities for winter – currently, major repairs are being carried out on 10 boilers throughout the city.
As reported, Deputy Prime Minister for Recovery and Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Kuleba noted that as of mid-September, the readiness level of the heating network pipelines of Kryvorizhteplocentral JSC is approximately 60%, but all necessary work will be completed before the start of the heating season. He specified that more than 100 repair and restoration teams are currently involved in replacing heating networks, and work is being carried out first and foremost in areas of damage where hydraulic tests need to be conducted.
