Business news from Ukraine

Ukrainian banks received UAH 34 bln in net profit in Q1

Solvent banks in Ukraine in January-March 2023 received UAH 34 billion in net profit against UAH 152 million loss in the same period of 2022, the National Bank of Ukraine said on Friday.
“The main factors of the sector’s profitability are the growth of income as a result of the gradual resumption of banking activities and relatively insignificant volumes of additional provisioning,” it pointed out on its website.
Only five banks out of 65 in the first quarter were unprofitable with an aggregate loss of UAH 40 million.
According to the NBU, in March, the net profit of banks rose to 12.58 billion UAH from 6.78 billion UAH in February.
It is pointed out that banks for the quarter increased operating income by 48% year-on-year, including net interest income rose by 41% year-on-year, despite a significant increase in interest expenses as a result of higher interest rates on deposits.
Net fee and commission income for the period, according to the NBU, increased by 20% compared to the result of the first quarter of 2022.
In March compared to February, net interest income increased by 40.4% to 38.16 billion UAH, net commission income – by 14.7%, to 23.7 billion UAH, while interest expenses increased only by 17.4% – to 7.93 billion UAH, and commission expenses even decreased by 15.8% – to 3.02 billion UAH.
“Banking volumes are resuming with the gradual resumption of economic activity, including after the shelling of energy infrastructure in late last year – early this year,” the regulator stated.
It added that the banks’ profitability is also boosted by the positive result of currency buying and selling operations, which was 2.3 times higher year-on-year in the first quarter.
Net operating profit before deductions to reserves doubled in 1Q 2023 year-on-year – to UAH 45.9 billion, while the rate of deductions to reserves against losses from asset transactions fell compared with 1Q of the previous year in 5.6 times, in particular in reserves against loans – 10 times.
During the quarter the deductions increased only by UAH 3.81 billion, including UAH 1.29 billion in March, and in total since the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, banks formed reserves for credit losses of UAH 108 billion.
The National Bank states that the return on equity sector on April 1, 2023 amounted to 58% against -0.25% a year ago.
The profit tax accrued for the quarter – UAH 6.72 billion – exceeded the corresponding annual figure for the historically most profitable year 2021, the regulator said.

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“Ovostar” increased net profit by 3.7 times

Agro-industrial group Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, has earned a net profit of $6.09 million in 2022, which is 3.7 times higher than in 2021.
According to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, its revenue for the year0 increased by 1.7% to $135.63 million and gross profit by 67.2% to $22.77 million.
EBITDA was up 96% to $11.1 million and operating income 5.9 times, to $7.29 million, it said.
“Steadily rising egg and egg product prices in the second half of 2022 provided better margins than in previous years,” the report notes.
“Ovostar added that its cost of sales fell 22 percent to $86.6 million as a result of lower production volumes and a sharp drop in local prices for poultry feed components such as wheat and corn, caused by limited grain exports due to fighting in the country.
The group also noted that its total debt for 2022 was down 15% to $10.9 million, net debt became negative – “minus” $1.4 million – from $10.4 million, and free cash flow quintupled to $12.2 million.
The holding company of the group – Ovostar Union N.V. – in mid-June 2011, it floated 25% of its shares on the WSE and raised $33.2 mln. Its majority shareholding is owned by Prime One Capital Limited, controlled by its chief executive B. Belikov and chairman of the board Vitaliy Veresenko.
In 2022, Ovostar reportedly reduced egg production by 9% to 1.55 bln eggs and sales by 6% to 1.08 bln eggs.
At the same time, sales of dry egg products decreased by one-third to 2.13 thousand tons, liquid – by 26%, to 10.62 thousand tons.

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“Ukrgraphit” increased its profit by 43 times in 3 months

Ukrgraphite (Zaporizhia) increased its net profit by 42.9 times in January-March this year as compared to the similar period of the previous year – up to UAH 70.723 mln.
According to the interim report of the company, in the first quarter the company decreased its net profit by 11% – to UAH 437.326 mln.
The undistributed profits of the company as of the end of the first quarter of this year amounted to UAH 3 bln 776.257 mln.
As it was reported, Ukrgraphit reduced net income in 2022 by 41.4% compared to the previous year – to UAH 1 billion 545.562 million and received a net profit of UAH 52.584 million, while it ended 2021 with a net loss of UAH 317.539 million.
“Ukrgraphite is Ukraine’s leading manufacturer of graphitized electrodes for electric steel-making, ore-thermal and other types of electric furnaces, commodity carbon masses for Soderberg electrodes, carbon-based lining materials for metallurgical, machine-building, chemical and other industrial complexes.
According to the National Depository of Ukraine (NDU) as of the fourth quarter of 2022, Intergraphite Holdings Company Limited (Bermuda) owns 23,9841% of PrJSC, C6 Safe Group Limited (Cyprus) – 72,0394%.
The authorized capital of PrJSC – 233,959 million UAH, nominal value of 1 share – 3,35 UAH.

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“Dneprovagonmash” earned UAH 37 mln in net profit

Ukraine’s largest car-building enterprise, Dneprovagonmash JSC (DVM, Kamianske, Dnipro region), controlled by businessman Sergiy Tigipko’s TAS Financial and Industrial Group, ended the first quarter of 2023 with a net profit of UAH 37.04 million against a loss of UAH 18.07 million in January-March 2022.
According to the company’s interim financial statements published in the National Securities and Stock Market Commission’s (NSSMC) information disclosure system, net sales revenue increased by 32% to UAH 396.92 million.
In January-March, the company increased its gross profit by almost 12 times to UAH 59.47 million, generating UAH 37.82 million in operating profit against a loss of UAH 16.06 million.
Compared to the beginning of this year, DVM reduced current liabilities by 27% to UAH 217.62 million, while long-term liabilities increased by 12.6% to UAH 59.34 million.
The report does not include the number of railcars produced and sold in the reporting period.
“Dneprovagonmash is one of Ukraine’s leading freight car design and manufacturing companies. Its annual production capacity is 9 thousand units.
As reported, DVM’s net income for 2022 increased by 77.3% to UAH 1 billion 108.7 million, with net profit of UAH 48.64 million compared to a loss of UAH 111.3 million a year earlier. At the same time, sales of railcars increased by 35% to 623 units, and production by 21% to 577 units.
TAS Group was founded in 1998 by businessman Tigipko. Its business interests include the financial sector (banking and insurance) and pharmacy, as well as industry, real estate, and venture capital projects.

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Vodafone’s net profit in Ukraine in 2022 falls by 74%

In 2022, Vodafone Ukraine reduced its net income by 2% to UAH 19.8 billion, having received a net profit of UAH 1.1 billion, the press service of the mobile operator reported on Friday.
According to a press release, OIBDA (Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization) of Vodafone Ukraine in 2022 grew by 3% and amounted to UAH 11.3 billion, OIBDA margin rose by 2.5 p.p. to 56.9%.
“The company’s revenue in 2022 was UAH 19.8 billion. A decrease of 2% compared to the previous year is due to a decrease in the number of mobile network users. Vodafone’s net profit in 2022 was UAH 1.1 billion. The decrease in the indicator… is due to losses from exchange rate differences received as a result of the growth of the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the hryvnia by 34%,” the company said.
Most Vodafone Ukraine mobile users lived in the east and south of Ukraine. In connection with the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and the hostilities that disabled a number of mobile communication networks in the temporarily occupied territories and directly in the war zone, Vodafone lost the most subscribers of all Ukrainian operators – 3.5 million users, the company said in the report.
As of the end of 2022, Vodafone had 15.4 million customers.
Currently over 2.2 million users remain abroad and continue using Vodafone services.
“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Vodafone has been supporting Ukrainians who seek protection in European countries and provides the free connection to the Affordable Roaming service in most tariffs. The service provides 10GB of mobile Internet and 100 minutes for calls with subscribers in Ukraine and the country of residence, subject to paid Ukrainian package,” the company said, specifying that the Affordable Roaming offer is used by 87% of all customers staying in the roaming zone.
Data services are used by 71% of all Vodafone customers, while the mobile Internet usage has grown by 1.5 times, the company said.
Despite the impact of the war on the company’s revenues in 2022, Vodafone Ukraine maintained business stability, not reducing but increasing the volume of investments in developing and supporting the country’s telecom infrastructure. At the same time, it was possible to enhance business efficiency and the penetration of digital services, the company said in the press release.
Vodafone increased capital investments to UAH 3.6 billion in 2022.
“Thanks to this, Vodafone engineers restored the destroyed infrastructure, quickly repaired equipment, developed the network, and ensured the availability of communications in blackout conditions. During the year, the company’s engineers returned to the air about 800 villages and cities, carrying out about 2,960 repair trips, including in close proximity to the front line,” the company said.
Vodafone did not stop the development of the network. In 2022, the company’s specialists paid special attention to expanding capacity and coverage in regions of mass migration. In general, since the beginning of the war, 4,000 4G base stations have been launched.
Significant resources of the company were sent to ensure the availability of communications in the conditions of power outages due to targeted attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure facilities. Vodafone purchased 414 mobile generators, and the company’s engineers replaced 24,712 batteries. To ensure the operation of alternative power sources, 519 tonnes of diesel fuel were used.
The company said that today 88% of the network is operating well.

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Poltavpivo boosted its net profit almost fourfold to UAH 81 mln in 2022

Poltavpivo (Poltava) has increased its net profit almost fourfold to UAH 81.46 mln in 2022 from UAH 20.69 mln a year earlier.
According to the announcement of the April 24 annual meeting, the shareholders suggested that part of the UAH 3.267 mln profit be transferred to the reserve capital, while the remaining UAH 78.189 mln remain undistributed.
It is indicated that at the end of 2022 the company increased to 214.30 million of its undistributed profits, which is 1.7 times more than a year earlier.
The assets of the company in 2022 increased by 24.5% up to UAH 414.39 mln, including an increase in accounts receivable by 29.5% up to UAH 61.66 mln and reserves by 29.4% up to UAH 75.07 mln.
Free cash almost doubled up to 104.23 mln UAH from 52.47 mln UAH, and fixed assets insignificantly reduced to 170.05 mln UAH.
The company managed to increase its equity capital by 29.6% up to UAH 361.96 mln, and its long-term liabilities reduced by 35.4% going to UAH 11.67 mln, while the current ones increased by 17.7% going to UAH 40.77 mln.
According to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the owner of 96.5309% of shares is LLC “Emporium-P” (Poltava). Previously this company belonged to the Russian Stovropol Brewery, but in 2019 it was owned by the Cypriot Armico Beer Ltd. In the annual report for 2021, its 100% owner was named Rasul Ebzeyev, but in 2022 the beneficiary in the state register is the director of “Poltavpivo” Vasily Lavrichenko.
Another 1.7108% at the end of 2021 belonged to the Cyprus-based Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited, and another 1.7583% was owned by 414 persons.
Poltavpivo pointed out that on April 14, 2022 Emporium-P recalled its head Magomet Hasanov, who served as general director of Stavropol Brewery and Emporium-P itself, from the PJSC Supervisory Board and appointed Lyubov Pogromskaya instead.
Then, last June, Khasanov resigned as director of “Emporium-P,” and he was replaced by Yulia Podvorchan.
“Poltavpivo” in the report for 2021 indicated that it offers 37 beer titles (TM “Poltava”), 17 soft drinks (BAN) and 4 – kvass.
In 2021, the company decreased beer sales by 2% to 2 million 587.8 thousand dal, BAN – by 16.5% to 604.8 thousand dal, but kvass sales rose by 5.9% to 119.3 thousand dal.
Its net income in 2021 rose by 3.7% – to 323.33 million UAH, and net profit decreased by 35% – to 20.7 million UAH.

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