On Monday, shares of Kernel agricultural holding rose sharply on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) after almost a month of falling due to an additional share issue.
According to the WSE, as of 11:17 a.m. Kyiv time, their share price jumped by 20.74% to PLN7.66 ($1.76 at the current exchange rate), while after the announcement of the additional issue on August 22 and until Friday, September 15, it fell from PLN13.74 ($3.36) to a historic low of PLN6.34.
On Monday, a total of 203 deals were made with 40.08 thousand shares for almost PLN0.27 million.
Market participants speculated that the drop could have been caused by the need for index funds to sell shares, as Kernel’s shares were excluded from all indices after the additional issue and the drop in free float.
As reported, Namsen Limited, the majority shareholder and CEO of Kernel Agro Holding Andriy Verevsky, acquired 212 million 634,916 thousand shares during the additional placement among qualified investor shareholders for a total volume of 216 million shares. The purchase price was $0.2777 per share for a total value of $59.05 million, and the transaction was completed on September 1. The over-allotment shares will be kept in registered form and will not be admitted to trading on any stock exchange, Kernel said. Prior to the placement, 84 million 31.23 thousand shares were in circulation.
Earlier this year, Verevsky increased his stake from 41.3% to 74.05%, or 62 million 222.46 thousand shares, as part of the share buyback and the announced delisting of the agricultural holding from the Warsaw Stock Exchange: On May 12, he bought back 30 million 248,449 thousand shares at a price of PLN18.5 per share (approximately $4.47 at the then exchange rate), which brought the total buyout price to approximately $136.1 million, while the company’s IPO in 2007 was held at a price of PLN24.
Taking into account the dilution and the fact that another 7.86% of the shares were owned by the issuer itself, the total number of shares owned by Verevsky reached 274 million 857.38 thousand, which, taking into account treasury shares, gives him almost 93.7% of the votes.
The company is currently awaiting the Polish regulator’s verdict on its delisting application, which is opposed by a number of minority shareholders.
Prior to the war, Kernel was the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil (about 7% of global production) and a major exporter (about 12%). It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. It is also engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
Kernel’s net profit for the first nine months of FY2023 (July 2022 – March 2023) increased by 36% to $437 million, while revenue fell by 45% to $2.715 billion.
May May Mayak plant (Zmiev, Kharkiv oblast), a producer of central heating boilers, will pay out dividends for 2022 in the amount of UAH 2.896 thousand per one share with a par value of UAH 1 thsd during May 25 – October 25 of this year.
According to the company message in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSCM), this was decided by a general meeting of shareholders on April 25.
According to the company, it ended the year 2022 with a net profit of UAH 12.16 mln, while a year earlier it amounted to UAH 0.46 mln. Only UAH 608,16 thousand were directed for payment of dividends.
The registered capital of JSC “Mayak plant” is 210 thousand UAH, which is divided into 210 shares. The net profit per one common share in 2022 amounted to 57,91 thousand UAH.
According to the Commission for the fourth quarter of 2022, 52,381% of the shares belongs to its director Alexei Mushtay, Tatiana Samusenko and Zoya Garagata own 14,2857% each.
According to the information on the web-site of the company, it was founded in 1991 and is one of the leading domestic manufacturers of household heating equipment (solid fuel, gas, electric boilers, radiators), designed for heating individual houses, apartments and industrial facilities.
The plant has 30 regional offices in Ukraine.
According to the resource opendatabot, in 2022, the company’s net income grew by 27.2% YoY, to 91.22 mln hryvnia.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine intends in the next five years to increase the share of low cost air routes from Ukraine from 38% to 63%.
Such plans are contained in the government’s program (draft resolution No. 2186), posted on the parliament’s website.
According to the text of the program, for the specified period, the government intends to create conditions for a 60% increase in passenger traffic from Ukrainian airports from 20 million to 32 million people a year, as well as for increasing freight traffic from airports by 20%, from 94,000 tonnes to 112,000 tonnes per year.
In addition, the Cabinet also plans to stimulate the formation of an approximate average ticket price to the level of the average European indicator and increase the air mobility of the population by 10%, from 5% to 15%.
As reported, in January-August 2019 Ukrainian airlines transported about 9.226 million passengers, which is 10.7% more compared to the same period in 2018.
VR Capital Group (the United States), an alternative asset manager specializing in global emerging markets, has acquired the remaining stake in alternative energy projects jointly developed with ICU independent asset management, ICU reported on its website.
According to the report, deal covers green energy facilities in Kamyanets-Podilska solar plant (64 MW) in Khmelnytsky region, Solar Capital energy company (35 MW) in Kherson region and a number of small stations in Mykolaiv region (with a total capacity of 127 MW).
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The ICU only said the transaction has been approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on July 4, 2019.
“I am still confident that these assets are in good hands and that the key alternative energy sector in Ukraine is positioned to attract further large foreign investments. We see a great potential in our economy and we continue our work with international investors,” said ICU managing partner Makar Paseniuk.
He said that VR Capital has been a visionary among western investors in understanding the enormous potential of Ukraine and being ready to support the country even during difficult times.
VR Capital Group Ltd., through its principal subsidiaries including VR Advisory Services Ltd (together, VR Capital Group) is an alternative asset manager with assets under management in excess of $4.5 billion. VR Capital Group’s external client base is primarily composed of institutional investors from the United States and Western Europe, including university endowments, charitable foundations, family offices and institutional asset allocators.
Founded in 2006, ICU is Ukraine’s leading asset manager with over $500 million in assets under management. Managing Partners Makar Paseniuk and Konstantin Stetsenko are majority shareholders of ICU.
ALTERNATIVE, DEVELOPED, ENERGY PROJECTS, ICU'S, SHARE, US VR CAPITAL
The share of companies planning to attract loans in the next 12 months has reached 41.5% in the second quarter of 2019 compared to 38.2% a quarter earlier, according to the results of a regular survey of enterprises’ business expectations announced by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). The largest share of such companies accounted for the manufacturing industry, those of energy and water supply, the document says.
According to the survey, enterprises, as before, prefer loans in the national currency: their share increased to 79.1% in the second quarter compared to 78.1% in the first quarter.
The National Bank noted that large enterprises, as well as those companies that conduct export-import operations are more inclined to attract loans in foreign currency.
At the same time, the share of respondents planning to attract foreign loans rose in the market up to 10.4% in the second quarter compared to 9.7% in the previous quarter.
The share of public procurement of medicines in January-March 2019 totaled 20% of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, SMD consulting company (Kyiv) has said after studying the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market.
According to the company, in January-March 2019, budget medical procurement in monetary terms increased 40% compared to the same period of 2018 in the centralized procurement segment and by 19% in the procurement segment of medical institutions.
In addition, budget procurement in kind increased 134% in the segment of centralized procurement and by 13% in procurement by hospitals.
At the same time, the company said that in the first quarter of 2019, hospitals, in accordance with their needs, used the ending stocks of the 2018 budget funds to purchase drugs and expensive medicines.
In general, in the first quarter of 2019, the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine grew by 11% in monetary terms compared to the same period of 2018, to UAH 13 billion, while in kind it fell by 7%, to 177 million packages.
At the same time, according to the analysts of the company, the prescription segment in the first quarter of 2019 grew by 17% in monetary terms and decreased 1% in physical terms.
In addition, in the first quarter of 2019, sales of foreign manufacturers in kind decreased 5%, while sales of Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers decreased 8%.
