On September 15, Viktor Ivanchik, CEO of the Astarta agricultural holding, purchased 244,679 thousand shares, or 0.9787% of their total number, over the counter through Albacon Ventures Limited at a price of PLN55.5 per share, which is significantly higher than the price quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
The corresponding announcement on the stock exchange on the evening of Thursday, September 18, led to a 6.58% increase in the share price on Friday, to PLN47.00.
The last time Ivanchik bought shares in significantly smaller volumes on the exchange was at the end of June, but then the deals were concluded at a price ranging from PLN57.6 to PLN60.0 per share. However, after that, the shares of Astarta and other Ukrainian companies fell in price due to another loss of optimism about the possibility of a ceasefire. However, in early March, the CEO of the agricultural holding bought shares at PLN48.9, at the end of December at PLN39.6, and at the end of October at PLN30.9 per share.
According to the latest stock exchange report, Ivanchik’s total expenditure on the purchase of a stake of almost 1% can be estimated at PLN13.58 million, or about $3.7 million.
It is noted that after this transaction, the CEO of Astarta owns 10,678,610 shares of the agricultural holding, or 42.7144% of their total number.
According to the latest report, as of mid-year, Ivanchik’s family owned a total of 42.23% of shares, compared to 41.48% at the beginning of this year and 41.17% in the middle of last year. Fairfax Financial Holdings has also been a major shareholder all this time, with 29.91%, while another 2.1184% of shares are owned by the company itself and were previously repurchased as part of a buyback. As of May this year, minority shareholders also included Kopernik Global Investors with 2.64% and Heptagon Capital with 1.8%.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine and is the largest sugar producer in Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares, dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Hlobyn (Poltava region), seven elevators, and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2025, Astarta reduced its net profit by 10.3% to EUR47.11 million, and its consolidated revenue decreased by 29.3% to EUR320.71 million.
On June 12 this year, the shareholders’ meeting approved the payment of dividends for 2024 in the amount of EUR0.5 per share for a total of EUR12.5 million, which is in line with the figures for the previous two years.
