Prometey Group of Companies has received $50-60 million of damage since the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine, four elevators are still under occupation and four have been badly damaged.
“Prometey has suffered a lot in assets and goods, losses in goods are $40-45 million, the examination of losses is now underway. In addition, we lost $10-15 million in equity. Eight elevators of the company suffered a lot: four are still under occupation in Zaporozhye region and four suffered a lot,” said the owner of the holding Rafael Goroyan in his interview to Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, for several days in a row the Russians purposefully shelled the group’s Voznesensk elevator (Voznesensk, Nikolayev region, capacity of 50,000 tons) with cruise missiles, although there were no military facilities, equipment, bases or warehouses at the agricultural enterprise. Russian missiles struck the grain elevator four times in one day, and another strike occurred a few days later when personnel were at the enterprise.
“Now the AFU has liberated Snigirevka. Our elevator is fully mined, the bomb squad is working now and we are waiting until we are allowed to start work,” the company owner said.
Goroyan said Prometey has 34 granaries in total.
In addition, Russian occupation covered 2 thousand hectares of agricultural land, or 10% of the land bank of the grain trader. The humanitarian situation in the liberated territories was terrible, the territory was mined, and at this time it is impossible to carry out agricultural work on it. Russian invaders have also stolen and destroyed Prometey’ irrigation infrastructure in the Nikolaev region.
“Irrigation was stolen and destroyed by the aggressor country Russia. In Snegirevka before the war there were about a thousand or a thousand and a half hectares under irrigation, now they are gone. But there is no certainty of tomorrow to restore. Now it is not quite right for a businessman to invest in expensive foreign equipment without confidence in tomorrow,” stated the businessman.
The Prometey Group provides services for the storage, processing and logistics of crops. Before the Russian aggression the holding owned 34 elevators in the regions of Nikolaev, Kirovograd, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Zaporizhzhya, Sumy, Odessa, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk.
By the end of 2021, the group planned to receive $45 mln EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 mln and in 2019 – $30.5 mln.
