Agroindustrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has completed its 2022 sugar season, which lasted from September to January, with a total of about 2 million tons of sugar beet processed into 282 thousand tons of sugar.
According to the company’s website on Wednesday, the past sugar season was the most difficult in the holding company’s history, although the volume of sugar produced increased by 6% over the 2021 season, and by 25% over the 2020 season.
It is specified that Astarta’s sugar yield from the raw materials last season was 14.26%, while the Ukrainian average was 13.98%, and 99% of the produced sugar corresponds to the highest quality category.
The holding referred to the preliminary data of Ukrtsukor association, according to which Astarta’s share on the Ukrainian sugar production market in 2022 season was 25%.
The sugar producer specified that its planted areas under sugar beet in central and western regions of Ukraine were not significantly affected by military operations, but it faced a number of other challenges.
“Due to increased costs for fertilizers, crop protection products and fuel, sugar beet cultivation costs per hectare have risen. Nearly continuous rains during the harvest period have made both harvesting the crop and transporting it from the fields to processing plants much more difficult. However, Astarta harvested 1.8 million tons of sugar beets in 2022 at a yield of 56 tons/ha,” the holding quoted its director of agricultural products processing Yevgeny Sadovy as saying.
“Astarta stressed that it was able to implement a number of energy-saving projects at its sugar refineries during the war, in particular, a scheme for autonomous power supply to enterprises in case of a power blackout.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It consists of six sugar factories, farms with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and biogas complex.
Agricultural holding in 2021 increased net profit 14 times compared with 2020 – up to EUR 122.5 mln, EBITDA – 1.8 times, up to EUR 201.5 mln. Its revenue increased by 18.2% – to EUR 491.35 mln, one third of which (EUR 170 mln) was generated by sugar production and sales.
Agroindustrial holding “Astarta”, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, plans to process up to 2 million tons of sugar beet, grown at the own enterprise and supplied by the third-party farmers in the current season.
To date, the sugar plants have already produced 241 thousand tons of white sugar from more than 1.7 million tons of beets, and plan to process more than 200 thousand tons more, the holding said in a statement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
“Astarta” in 2022 began the sugar season on September 16, a total of five sugar refineries of the group were working during the season.
As reported, on December, 9 sugar beet in Ukraine is harvested from 98% of the planned areas, totally 8.9 million tons (+0.3 million tons for the last week) from 177 thousand hectares (+3 thousand hectares).
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, which operates in eight regions of Ukraine. It consists of six sugar factories, agro-farms with land bank of 220 thousand hectares, dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and biogas complex.
Agroholding increased its net profit in 2021 14 times compared to 2020 – up to EUR 122.5 mln, EBITDA – 1.8 times, up to EUR 201.5 mln. Its revenue increased by 18.2% up to EUR 491.35 mln, one third of which (EUR 170 mln) was generated by sugar production and sales.
Cyprus has issued a temporary certificate of continuation of activity to the parent company of Astarta agro-industrial holding Astarta Holding N.V, certifying its registration as a company temporarily operating in the Republic of Cyprus under the name Astarta Holding PLC.
As the holding reported on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday evening, the corresponding certificate was issued to the company on September 16 by the Department of the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus.
It is specified that Astarta received a temporary certificate of registration in Cyprus as part of the ongoing process of its cross-border migration to the jurisdiction of Cyprus from the Dutch jurisdiction.
“The migration has taken effect, which means that the company was temporarily registered in Cyprus under the name Astarta Holding PLC, the seat of the Company was transferred from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Nicosia (Cyprus). The company lost its legal address in the Netherlands and began its activities under the name Astarta Holding PLC,” the holding said in an exchange message.
At the same time, the formal completion of the legal migration will occur after Astarta receives the final certificate of continuation of its activities, for which it needs to provide evidence of the official transfer of registration from the Dutch Commercial Register (Handelsregister) to the Companies Registry in Cyprus within 6 months after receiving the temporary certificate of registration .
According to the report, the change of jurisdiction of Astarta took place without dissolution of the company, termination of its existence or reincorporation, its shares were not replaced by new shares and remain listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Also, migration does not affect the voting rights and the right to profit of the company’s shareholders.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand heads of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2021, the agricultural holding increased its net profit by 14 times compared to 2020 – up to EUR122.5 million, EBITDA – by 1.8 times, up to EUR201.5 million. Its revenue increased by 18.2% – up to EUR491.35 million, a third of which (EUR170 million) was generated by the production and sale of sugar.
Agro-industrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, received EUR 27.7 million in net profit in January-June 2022, which is 3.2 times less compared to the same period last year, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Tuesday .
According to it, the company’s EBITDA decreased by 1.8 times – to EUR68.14 million, while revenue increased by 44%, to EUR218.3 million. The agricultural holding’s gross profit for this period decreased by 37.4% and amounted to EUR77.46 million , the gross margin and return on sales (EBITDA margin) fell 2.3 times – to 35% from 82%.
According to the report, as of June 30, 2022, the total assets of the agricultural holding increased by 21.4% compared to the data as of December 31, 2021 – up to EUR787.2 million, current liabilities – by 37.8% – up to EUR136.7 million, long-term liabilities – by 17.6%, up to EUR125.3 million.
“As of the end of the first half of 2022, net debt increased by 8% year-on-year to EUR193 million driven by an increase in working capital, while net financial debt decreased by 30% year-on-year to EUR53 million with higher balances cash at the end of the first half of 2022,” the agro-industrial holding said in a statement.
According to Astarta, 28% of the total revenue was generated by the sugar production segment, 35% by growing crops, 24% by the production of soybean meal and soybean oil, and 10% by dairy cattle breeding.
The sugar segment of the group in January-June 2022 showed an increase in revenue by 5% – up to EUR61.85 million due to an increase in prices for it by 23% – up to EUR613 per ton. During the reporting period, 121 thousand tons of sugar and sugar-containing products were produced, which is 6.2% less than in the first half of last year.
At the same time, the vast majority of sugar produced by Astarta (96%) was sold on the domestic market, and 4 thousand tons were exported (4%), while in the first half of last year all sugar was sold in Ukraine.
“Since Ukraine has removed export restrictions, and the EU has canceled import duties (for one year – IF-U), the total export of sugar from Ukraine reached 14 thousand tons in the first half of 2022. The share of Astarta in total sugar exports amounted to 30% The key buyers were the EU countries neighboring Ukraine and Moldova,” the manufacturer said in an exchange message.
Revenue generated by the agricultural segment of Astarta in January-June 2022 jumped 2.8 times compared to the same period in 2021, to EUR 76.9 million due to significant sales volumes and high prices for crops before the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. During this period, exports accounted for 79% of crop production segment revenue.
In January-June 2022, Agropromholding sold corn for EUR54.5 million (an increase of 2.3 times compared to the first half of 2021), wheat for EUR3.2 million (an increase of 2 times), sunflower for EUR18.1 million (an increase of 14 times) and rapeseed by EUR0.39 mln.
As of the date of this report, Astarta has completed the harvesting of winter crops; in total, 265 thousand tons of wheat and 19 thousand tons of rapeseed have been harvested. Due to less favorable weather conditions compared to the previous year, winter crop yields were lower: wheat – 4.8 tons/ha (17% less), rapeseed – 3.1 tons/ha (4% less).
The agro-industrial holding’s revenue in the soybean processing segment for the six months of this year increased by 18% to EUR52.7 million due to an increase in average prices for soybean meal to EUR480/ton (+7% compared to January-June 2021) and soybean oil to EUR1300/ ton (+38%). In total, Astarta produced 113 thousand tons of soybean meal (+18% compared to January-June 2021), 83 thousand tons of soybean meal (+17%) and 21 thousand tons of soybean oil (+17%).
Agro-industrial group Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, refused to pay dividends for 2021 and will direct EUR94.1 million to the retained earnings reserve.
As stated in the message of the company on Friday night, such a decision was made by its shareholders meeting on Thursday.
Shareholders also approved Astarta’s continuation of the buyback program for up to 12.5 million shares (50% of those outstanding) at a maximum price of PLN125 per share.
In addition, the meeting delegated to the board of directors the right to issue shares and grant options in the amount of not more than 10% of Astarta’s authorized capital for one year.
The shareholders also instructed the board of directors to select an auditor company to audit the company’s financial statements for 2022. Candidates for the review include international drug companies Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Grant Thornton, BDO and Baker Tilly.
The meeting reportedly approved the replacement of Marc M.L.J. van Campen as a member of the company’s board of directors with Savvas Perikleous.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand heads of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2021, the agricultural holding increased its net profit by 14 times compared to 2020 – up to EUR122.5 million, EBITDA – by 1.8 times, up to EUR201.5 million. Its revenue increased by 18.2% – up to EUR491.35 million, a third of which (EUR170 million) was generated by the production and sale of sugar.
Agro-industrial holding “Astarta”, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, in January-March 2022 reduced sales of this product by 44% compared to the same period in 2021 – from 58.14 thousand tons to 32.64 thousand. tons, while the average selling price on the domestic market increased by 14% – from UAH 16.14 thousand to UAH 18.45 thousand.
According to the report of the agrarian group on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Wednesday evening, sales of wheat by the agricultural holding in the first quarter of this year increased by 2.6 times compared to January-March 2021 – up to 10.1 thousand tons, corn – by 2.8 times , up to 200 thousand tons, sunflower – 6 times, up to 21.5 thousand tons. Also, 71 tons of rapeseed were sold, which was not sold in the first quarter of 2021.
Milk sales for the specified period did not change, remaining at the level of 24.3 thousand tons.
In turn, the sale of soybean oil by Astarta in the first quarter of 2022 decreased by 2.1 times compared to January-March 2021 – to 12.6 thousand tons, and soybean meal – by 2%, to 39.1 thousand tons.
The agricultural holding clarified that the average cost of sugar sold in January-March 2021 increased by 14% compared to the same period a year earlier – up to UAH 18.45 thousand / ton, wheat – by 5%, up to UAH 8.3 thousand / ton, corn – by 34%, up to 7.5 thousand UAH / ton. At the same time, the average price of sunflower rose by 67% – up to 18.9 thousand UAH/ton, soybean oil – by 25%, up to 37 thousand UAH/ton, soybean meal – by 2%, up to 15.5 thousand UAH/ton. ton, milk – by 3%, up to 12.1 thousand UAH/ton.
Thus, taking into account the size of products sold and its average price, it is possible to estimate the estimated revenue of Astarta from the sale of sugar in the first quarter of this year at UAH 602 million, corn – UAH 1.5 billion, soybean meal – UAH 615.8 million , sunflower – UAH 407.6 million, milk – UAH 293.5 million, soybean oil – UAH 221.6 million, wheat – UAH 84.21 million, rapeseed – UAH 1.24 million. Accordingly, the total estimated revenue of the agricultural holding from the sale of these crops amounted to UAH 3.72 billion.
As reported, the agrarian group planned to transfer 1.1 thousand tons of food in the form of humanitarian aid to the Vinnitsa region, of which 530 tons have already been delivered to the region, while the Odessa region will receive 1.3 thousand tons of humanitarian aid (850 tons have already been delivered).
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand heads of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2021, the agricultural holding increased its net profit by 14 times compared to 2020 – up to EUR122.5 million, EBITDA – by 1.8 times, up to EUR201.5 million. Its revenue increased by 18.2% – up to EUR491.35 million, a third of which (EUR170 million) was generated by the production and sale of sugar.
