Business news from Ukraine

METINVEST INCREASES EBITDA IN JUNE TO $931 MLN

Revenue of Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, in June this year grew by 9.8%, or $153 million, compared to the previous month, to $1.722 billion from $1.569 billion.
According to the published preliminary unaudited consolidated monthly results of the company’s financial statements last week, total EBITDA in June was $931 million, which is $179 million, or 23.8%, higher than in May ($752 million). At the same time, EBITDA from participation in the joint venture amounted to $126 million (in May it was $147 million).
According to the report, the adjusted EBITDA of the metallurgical division of the group in June 2021 amounted to $401 million (in May it was $367 million), including $28 million from participation in the joint venture ($46 million); EBITDA of the mining division reached $650 million ($460 million), including $97 million ($101 million) from the joint venture. The management company spent $30 million ($5 million).
Total revenue in June consisted of $1.303 billion of the Metallurgical Division ($1.244 billion in May) and $713 million in the Mining Division ($583 million). Intragroup sales totaled $294 million ($258 million).
The total debt of Metinvest in June decreased by $466 million compared to May, to $2.459 billion from $2.925 billion. At the same time, the volume of funds increased by $204 million, to $1.443 billion from $1.239 billion.
Funds used in investment activities amounted to $37 million, in financial activities – $464 million.
Metinvest received $73 million from the resale of square billets (produced by DMK) in June in the amount of 102,000 tonnes. In addition, $225 million was received from the resale of 215,000 tonnes of flat products, $59 million from the resale of 68,000 tonnes of long products, and $53 million from the resale of 80,000 tonnes of pig iron.
In general, the company in June sold 440,000 tonnes of semi-finished products for $316 million, 814,000 tonnes of finished metal products for $849 million, and 162,000 tonnes of coke for $59 million.
In June, the Group sold 1.731 million tonnes of iron ore for $395 million, and 206,000 tonnes of coal concentrate for $29 million.

,

KYIVSTAR INCREASES EBITDA BY 17.4%

The mobile operator Kyivstar in the second quarter of 2021 increased its total revenue by 18.1% compared to April-June 2020, to UAH 7.904 billion, the company’s press service said.
According to the published data, in the second quarter Kyivstar increased its EBITDA by 17.4% over the same period last year, to UAH 4.783 billion. At the same time, the EBITDA margin decreased by 0.4 percentage points (p.p.), to 67.4%.
Revenues from mobile services increased by 18%, to UAH 6.597 billion.
In addition, the operator noted that in the second quarter of 2021, the consumption of minutes per user (MoU) decreased by 3.3%, to 620 from 641 in the same period last year. At the same time, the use of mobile Internet in April-June increased by 23.6%, to 6.2 gigabytes per subscriber, while the average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 16.4% and amounted to UAH 84.
The subscriber base in the second quarter of 2021 grew by 2.1% and amounted to 25.9 million. The subscriber base of the Home Internet service increased by 11.5%, to 1.16 million users.
Capital expenditures of Kyivstar during the reporting period decreased by 6.34% compared to the second quarter of 2020 and amounted to UAH 1.462 billion. According to the company, in total for the six months, Kyivstar’s capital expenditures amounted to UAH 2.539 billion. These funds were mainly used to build 4G networks on roads and in rural areas, as well as to improve the quality of services.
To improve customer service, the telecoms operator in the first half of 2021 modernized its IT systems by introducing a new technological solution from Ericsson.
In January-June 2021, Kyivstar transferred UAH 4.9 billion of taxes and other payments to the state budget and remains the largest taxpayer in the communications industry, the company said.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian telecommunications operator. It provides communications and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 3G. By the end of 2020, its services were used by about 25.9 million mobile subscribers and about 1.1 million fixed Internet customers.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is VEON international group (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) stock exchange.

,

METINVEST SEES EBITDA RISE BY 16% IN MAY

The revenue of Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, in May this year increased by 0.9%, or $ 14 million, compared to the previous month, to $ 1.569 billion from $ 1.555 billion.
According to the unaudited consolidated monthly results of the company’s financial statements, total EBITDA in May was $ 752 million, which is $ 102 million, or 15.7%, more than in April ($ 650 million). At the same time, EBITDA from participation in the joint venture amounted to $ 147 million (in April – $ 101 million).
According to the report, the adjusted EBITDA of the metallurgical division of the group for May 2021 amounted to “plus” $ 367 million, including $ 46 million from participation in the joint venture; EBITDA of the mining division – $ 460 million, including from the joint venture – $ 101 million. The management company spent $ 5 million.
Total revenue in May consisted of $ 1.244 billion of the metallurgical division and $ 583 million of the mining division. Intragroup sales were $ 258 million.
The total debt of Metinvest in May decreased by $ 247 million compared to April, to $ 2.925 billion from $ 3.172 billion. At the same time, the volume of funds increased by $ 35 million, to $ 1.239 billion from $ 1.204 billion.
Funds used in investment activities amounted to $ 43 million, in financial activities – $ 251 million.
In May, the group sold 1.474 million tonnes of iron ore for $ 308 million, 59,000 tonnes of coal concentrate for $ 8 million.
The main shareholders of Metinvest are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.

, , ,

STATE-RUN UKRTELECOM SEES RISE OF EBITDA BY 29%

Ukrtelecom’s total income in the first half of 2021 amounted to UAH 3.4 billion (more than 10% more than in the same period in 2020), and Internet income exceeded UAH 1 billion (more by 7.4%), the company’s press service has said on Monday.
Ukrtelecom’s EBITDA in the first six months amounted to UAH 1.1 billion (an increase of 29%). EBITDA margin increased by 4.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 31.3%.
It is noted that for the specified period, the company’s telecommunications services income amounted to almost UAH 2.4 billion. Private subscribers were provided with services for almost UAH 1.5 billion, and business consumers – for UAH 692 million. The fixed optical Internet user base grew by 83%, to 203,000 subscribers.
In the business segment, Internet income increased by 10.2%, to UAH 226 million, and in the mass segment – by 6.6%, to UAH 786 million.
Ukrtelecom notes that the connection of small towns and villages to high-speed optical Internet continues. Currently, work is underway in almost 150 settlements, where more than 4,500 km of fiber-optic cable have been laid.
“Throughout the country, 850 medical and 1,250 educational institutions, as well as 380 territorial communities are already using optical Internet from Ukrtelecom. Of these, 156 medical and 233 educational institutions, 21 territorial communities have been connected this year. Ukrtelecom is awaiting the announcement of tenders by local communities to participate in the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s program to provide modern optical Internet for social infrastructure and rural population,” the company said.
According to it, in January-June 2021, income related to asset management also increased, in particular, from receipts from commercial lease of property not involved in production processes. It amounted to more than UAH 213 million, which is almost 41% more than in the same period last year.
In addition, the operator has launched a three-year fleet renewal program, which provides for the replacement of more than 1,300 vehicles used in production activities, including for disaster recovery teams, deploying fiber-optic networks, connecting and servicing subscribers.
Capital investments in the first half of 2021 amounted to almost UAH 310 million.
“The problem remains with the debt of local budgets to reimburse the company’s expenses for telecommunications services provided to citizens entitled to benefits. As of June 30, this figure exceeds UAH 124 million,” the company said.
In 2021, Ukrtelecom has already paid UAH 975 million in taxes to the budgets of all levels.

, ,

NORWEY’S SCATEC INCREASES EBITDA IN UKRAINE BY 34%

Norwey’s Scatec saw EBITDA of NOK 55 million ($1/NOK 8.8759) in Ukraine in the first half of 2021, which is 34.1% more than in the first half of 2020.
According to the company’s report on Friday, its revenue grew by 47.8%, to NOK 68 million, while net production increased by 75%, to 49 GWh, and OPEX increased 2.6 times, to NOK 13 million.
At the same time, negative cash flow to equity amounted to NOK 3 million versus positive NOK 15 million in the first half of last year.
Scatec said that in the second quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of last year, its EBITDA in Ukraine increased by 11.4%, to NOK 39 million, revenue rose by 26.3%, to NOK 48 million with an increase in net production was 54.5%, to 34 GWh, while OPEX tripled to NOK 9 million.
In the second quarter, the company managed to reach a positive free cash flow on equity of NOK 7 million, which, however, is more than twice less than in the second quarter of last year – NOK 16 million.
According to the report, the Rengy, Chigrin, Kamianka and Boguslav projects in Ukraine that failed to meet certain loan covenants on 31 March 2021 are compliant with all covenants on 30 June 2021. The non-current non-recourse debt of NOK 921 million in Ukraine which was classified as current on 31 March 2021 have been reclassified back to non-current in the statement of financial position on 30 June 2021
Scatec also said that the 148 MW Progressovka project and the 55 MW Chigirin project in Ukraine reached commercial operation in early July 2021. The Progressovka project has been a collaboration with PowerChina Guizhou Engineering Co. Ltd., who has provided construction financing and Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) services to the project. The Construction financing from PowerChina is classified as trade and other payables in statement of financial position, and amounts to NOK 671 million on 30 June 2021. The loan is due 1 June 2022 and Scatec is working on securing long term financing with a local or international bank group.
In general, in the first half of 2021, Scatec increased EBITDA by 93.3%, to NOK 1.363 billion with an increase in revenue by 2.2 times, to NOK1.892 billion and net production by 2.3 times, to 1,714 GWh.
As reported, the total capacity of solar generation facilities built by Scatec in three regions of Ukraine has reached 314 MW.
Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker SCATC. The largest shareholders are state-controlled Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil) with 13.08%, Scatec Innovation AS with 12.26% and the manager of state pension funds of Norway Folketrygdfondet with 8.97%.

, ,

KSG AGRO INCREASES EBITDA BY 2.9 TIMES IN 2020

KSG Agro in 2020 cut its net profit by 68.8% compared to 2019, to $1.27 million, while increasing EBITDA by 2.9 times, to $6.02 million.
According to the audited report of the holding, published on Friday evening on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, its revenue over the past year decreased 11%, to $21.34 million.
At the end of 2020, KSG Agro increased its gross profit 2.4 times, to $6.25 million, and operating profit 10.5 times, to $4.35 million.
The company said that the crop yield in 2020 increased by 5.2% compared to 2019 – up to 40,000 tonnes, while the wheat crop increased by a quarter, to 17,900 tonnes, rapeseed – 2.4 times, to 2,730 tonnes, sunflower harvest decreased by 9.7% – to 11,700 tonnes.
“The total area of agricultural land used by the group as at 31 December 2020 is 21,000 hectares, of which 10,000 hectares are currently under winter crops and are expected to yield a total of 23,60 tonnes of wheat, barley and rapeseed at harvest. The group manages to maintain crop farming revenue at comparable levels to pig breeding, but because crops are exposed to weather conditions, revenues from pig breeding are still considered by management to be more reliable and remain the key strategic focus,” KSG Agro said in the report.
According to the agricultural holding, its revenue from the livestock segment in 2020 decreased by 8% compared to 2019 reaching $10.3 million, while the food processing segment brought the company 22% less, and amounted to $8.4 million. The total marketable pig number of the company as of December 31, 2020 increased by 7.8% compared to December 31, 2019, to 41,416 heads.
“Current year harvest was comparable to the previous year, so the relative decrease in sales is mostly attributable to the general slowing down in business when the first coronavirus prevention measures were introduced, and people were beginning to adapt to the new reality. After that, demand for crops and pork, as well as other goods used to manufacture food products, returned to the previous levels,” the company said in the report.
According to the company, there had been no significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the group’s profitability position so far. The pandemic is not expected to have an immediate material impact on business operations.

,