Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has received 40 grain railcars from the USAID Economic Support for Ukraine program, the donor organization’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
“They will increase the annual export of Ukrainian grain by 44 thousand tons, which will help feed the world. USAID assistance will also allow Astarta-Kyiv to offer better terms and more favorable prices to Ukrainian agricultural producers, which will directly improve their well-being,” the statement said.
USAID is confident that such assistance not only strengthens Ukraine’s economy through higher export revenues, but also helps Ukrainian farmers and plays an important role in ensuring global food security.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, Astarta Agricultural Holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93 million.
As reported, in 2024, the Karpaty Research and Mechanical Plant (Lviv region) will produce 300 grain carriers by order of the USAID Economic Support for Ukraine project, which will account for 45% of the company’s annual workload. The donor organization has already provided a number of Ukrainian agricultural holdings with railroad rolling stock, including 50 hopper cars to Nibulon, 10 units to IMC, 15 units to Cygnet, 25 units to AR Boryspil LLC, a member of the Agro-Region Group, and 25 units to grain traders Almeida Group and Louis Dreyfus, respectively.
Astarta Agro Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 13.9% in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023 to EUR47.11 million, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
According to the report, consolidated revenue increased by 11.6% to EUR320.71 million, while gross profit grew by 0.5% to $126.63 million and EBITDA decreased by 11.7% to $85.83 million.
“The EBITDA margin was 27%, down 7 p.p. (percentage points) year-on-year due to falling prices and higher SG&A expenses,” the report states.
Taking into account the data for the first quarter, Astarta managed to improve its performance in the second quarter. As reported, in the first quarter of 2024, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 44.1% to EUR9.02 million, EBITDA by 24.5% to $28.62 million, and its consolidated revenue increased by 1.4% to EUR165.78 million.
It is noted that the main growth factor in the first half of the year was sugar production, which accounted for 40% of total revenue, or EUR128 million (+48% compared to last year), followed by crop production with 31%, or EUR99 million (-2% compared to last year). Soybean processing accounted for 18% of Astarta’s consolidated revenue, or EUR58 million (-18% y-o-y), while livestock production accounted for 8%, or EUR25 million (+20% y-o-y).
It is indicated that export sales increased to 67% of consolidated revenue or EUR215 million in the first half of this year against 55% in the first half of last year.
The main contribution to EBITDA was made by crop production – EUR44.26 million against EUR43.68 million in the first half of last year, while the sugar segment’s EBITDA fell to EUR12.20 million from EUR24.10 million a year earlier.
In livestock, EBITDA increased to EUR 14.55 million from EUR 9.48 million in the first quarter of last year, while in soybean processing it decreased to EUR 16.45 million from EUR 20.11 million.
It is noted that the operating cash flow increased by 67.7% to EUR116.4 mln in six months due to lower inventories.
Investments increased 2.1 times to EUR20.19 million, mainly in crop and sugar production.
Over the year, Astarta’s net debt decreased from EUR131.55 million to EUR95.86 million, and free cash flow increased from EUR20.96 million to EUR72.84 million.
It is noted that the abnormally hot weather without rain forced the agricultural holding to accelerate the harvesting of winter crops. Less favorable weather conditions also led to lower yields in 2024, however, in the western regions of the country there was more precipitation, winter crops yields were higher, and overall yields were higher than the average for Ukraine.
The gross harvest of winter wheat amounted to 5.3 t/ha (-16% y-o-y), which means a harvest of 260 thsd tonnes (-4% y-o-y). Rapeseed yields averaged 3.4 t/ha (-17% y/y), with a harvest of 40 thou tons (-29% y/y). Harvesting of late crops for 2024 is ongoing. Sowing of winter rapeseed for the 2025 harvest started in mid-August. The planned sowing area is 20 thou hectares compared to 12 thou hectares last year.
“Astarta reminded that this year’s corn acreage decreased three times compared to last year, to 6 thou hectares, and sunflower acreage decreased by 34%, to 18 thou hectares. At the same time, the area under soybeans increased by 27% to 70 thou hectares to maximize the supply of its own products for soybean processing, Astarta said.
The company added that the area under sugar beet remained virtually unchanged and amounted to 38 thou hectares (-1% y-o-y), while the area under organic crops remained at the same level – about 2 thou hectares.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, started sugar beet processing at a plant in Vinnytsia region on August 24, with a total of five plants of the agricultural group operating this season, the press service of the agricultural holding reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, two plants in Poltava region are scheduled to be launched at the end of the week, and two more in September.
“The season has started successfully. The first plant is now online and operating at full capacity. We will soon start shipping the first batches of high-quality sugar to Ukrainian consumers. In general, our investments in the sugar segment were aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the plants. We also focused on improving staff motivation and product quality,” said Igor Rylyk, Director of Agricultural Processing at Astarta.
At the same time, the agricultural enterprises of the agro-industrial holding, which are the main suppliers of raw materials for Astarta’s sugar factories, continue harvesting sugar beet, the total area of which this year is 38 thousand hectares.
Currently, the holding’s plants are working on their own raw materials, and starting from September 1, sugar beet will be supplied for processing by farms with which Astarta cooperates on a regular basis, the agricultural holding said.
In 2023, Astarta Agricultural Holding grew 39 thousand tons of sugar beet, which is 20% more than a year earlier, thanks to a record yield of 58 tons/ha against 56 tons/ha in 2022, the company’s annual report said on Wednesday evening.
According to the agricultural holding, the record high sugar beet harvest extended the processing period until the end of January 2024. In total, the sugar production campaign in 2023 lasted 130 days, compared to 111 days a year earlier.
“In the 2023-2024 marketing year, Astarta increased sugar production by 34% year-on-year to 377 thousand tons. At the same time, the volume of sugar beet processing in 2023 increased by 37% compared to the same period last year and reached 2.7 million tons. The market share remained unchanged at 21% in 2023.
In 2023, Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has completed the harvest of winter grains and pulses on an area of over 61 thousand hectares.
According to the press service of the agricultural holding on Facebook, the gross harvest exceeded grain and amounted to 302 thousand tons, including 260 thousand tons of winter wheat, 40 thousand tons of rapeseed and 2 thousand tons of winter peas.
According to the report, the abnormally hot and precipitation-free weather allowed for a quick harvest. This year’s harvest lasted 14-17 days (within the region), while last year’s harvest lasted 24 days.
The average yield of winter wheat in the agroholding was 5.3 tons/ha, and winter rapeseed – 3.4 tons/ha. The highest average yields of 6.3 tons/ha of winter wheat and 3.8 tons/ha of winter rapeseed were recorded in Khmelnytsky and Vinnytsia regions. The average yield of winter peas, a new crop for the company, was 3.5 tons/ha.
“The well-coordinated work of the team, stable communication in the fields (StarLink) and dispatching of the entire supply chain (AgriChain) made it possible to ensure the smooth running of all processes. In such unfavorable weather conditions, early winter rape and wheat varieties were more productive, while late hybrids were less productive. Winter peas also proved to be a good performer. In general, this year, as in the previous year, we focused on optimizing production costs, given the price environment. And I think we are succeeding,” said Roman Pavlyk, Head of Crop Production at Astarta-Kyiv.
At the end of this week, the agricultural holding plans to start harvesting soybeans and sunflower.
In 2023, Astarta Agro Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchik’s family currently owns 40.68% of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and another 2.12% of shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
On July 25-26, Viktor Ivanchyk, CEO of Astarta Agro Holding, bought about 0.069% of the holding’s shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) for a total of PLN516.56 thousand (about $131.5 thousand at the current exchange rate), bringing his stake to 40.757% of the issued shares.
According to information on the WSE website, Albacon Ventures Ltd. owned by Ivanczyk, acquired 17.65 thousand shares in about 200 transactions these days at prices ranging from PLN27.85 to PLN30.6 per share, with an average price of PLN29.77.
On Friday, Astarta’s share price fell more than the market – by 4.95% to PLN28.80 ($7.33 at the current exchange rate).
As reported, in December 2023, Ivanchik resumed buying shares on the stock exchange after a break that lasted since June. According to the annual report, over the past year, Ivanchyk acquired 0.26%, or 64.90 thousand shares, increasing his stake to 40.26%, or 10 million 64.90 thousand shares. By now, he has reached 10 million 189.25 thousand shares, in particular due to receiving 0.5%, or 124.755 thousand shares as remuneration this year.
The annual report noted that, in addition to Ivanchyk’s family, Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and about 2% of the shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
In the first quarter of 2024, Astarta reduced its net profit by 44.1% year-on-year to EUR9.02 million, while its consolidated revenue increased by 1.4% to EUR165.78 million.
Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, supplied 1.26 million tons of agricultural products to foreign markets in the 2023-2024 marketing year, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the agricultural holding exported 512 thousand tons of corn, 375 thousand tons of wheat, 140 thousand tons of sugar, 125 thousand tons of meal, 43 thousand tons of soybean oil, 45 thousand tons of rapeseed and other agricultural products.
The main consumers of corn were Spain, Egypt, Italy, and Ireland. Spain, Indonesia, Romania, Portugal, and Italy were the main consumers of wheat. Sugar was supplied to the markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Meal and soybean oil were exported to Hungary, Poland, the UAE, Romania, and Saudi Arabia. The main consumers of organic products are Switzerland, the Czech Republic, France, and Germany.
In total, Astarta’s agricultural products were exported to 46 countries, the agricultural holding summarized.
In 2023, Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchik’s family currently owns 40.68% of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and another 2.12% of shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2023, Credit Agricole Bank ranked 11th in terms of total assets (UAH 100.36 billion) among 63 operating banks in the country, with 141 branches. The bank is fully owned by French Credit Agricole SA.
