Business news from Ukraine

Elworthy, major Ukrainian manufacturer of agricultural machinery, ended 2023 with loss of UAH 85 mln

According to preliminary data, a large Ukrainian manufacturer of sowing and tillage machinery Elworthy JSC (formerly Chervona Zirka, Kropivnitsky) has completed 2023 with a loss of UAH 85.85 mln, which is 81.6% more than the same indicator of 2022.

The corresponding information is contained in the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders of the company, scheduled for April 25, published in the disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NCSSM).

According to the draft decision of the meeting, the losses are planned to be repaid at the expense of retained earnings of previous years.

According to the Clarity-project resource, the company’s retained earnings amounted to UAH 611.039 million by the beginning of this year.

The meeting also intends, in particular, to re-elect the Supervisory Board.

JSC “Elworthy”, which is part of the group of enterprises “Elworthy Group” of businessman Pavel Shtutman, specializes in the production of seeding and tillage equipment: seeders for sowing grain and row crops, cultivators for continuous and inter-row tillage, disc harrows for resource-saving tillage.

As reported, in January-September 2023, the company has received UAH 59.17 million loss against net profit of UAH 29.3 million for the same period of 2022, with net income falling by 35% to UAH 422.93 million.

According to Clarity-project, net income for the whole of 2023 fell by 34.3% to UAH 490.7m.

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Continental to overhaul its fleet of agricultural machinery and special equipment

As part of its capital investment plan for 2024, Continental Farmers Group has started to upgrade its fleet of agricultural and special machinery, which it intends to replenish with 35 new tractors, combines, sprayers and seeders, as well as various equipment, the company’s press service reports.

“The condition and quality of our technical facilities are among the main factors that determine how successful the upcoming production seasons will be for us. We do not deviate from the approved investment plan. The company is already receiving the first deliveries of machinery this year, which will be actively used in the spring field work. The next deliveries, which will include machinery for the autumn fieldwork and storage equipment for potatoes, are planned closer to the harvest,” said Georg von Nolken, CEO of Continental Farmers Group.

According to the report, Continental has purchased 21 new tractors of various capacities, five combine harvesters, four self-propelled sprayers, five seeders, tillage machines, fertilizer spreaders, special and other auxiliary equipment, and precision farming equipment.

The agricultural holding noted that Continental purchases all new equipment in line with its strategy of developing and unifying its machinery fleet. All equipment is equipped to comply with precision farming technology. It ensures compliance with the following requirements: high-quality and stable autopilot operation, the ability to control the application rate by the task map, automatic control of machine sections, remote service access to monitoring, synchronization of field work, navigation between rows, etc.

Mriya Agro Holding and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into an agreement with international investor Salic UK to sell its assets.

Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests in agricultural and livestock production.

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AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY MARKET IN UKRAINE TO AT LEAST HALVE IN 2022 DUE TO INVASION OF RUSSIA – EXPERT

The market of agricultural machinery in Ukraine in 2022 will decline due to the aggression of the Russian Federation by at least 50%, depending on the company, the fall can be 50-80%, according to a posting on the website of the Czech manufacturer of agricultural machinery Bednar on Tuesday.
“For some it may be 50%, for others 80% or more, it will depend on the strategy of each company and the current situation in the country. As a patriot of Ukraine, I would like to see those brands lost in Ukraine more who decided not to leave the Russian market, but it depends on the conscious position of our farmers, whether they will take this factor into account when choosing a unit or not,” the company quotes Mykhailo Krishko, director of the company’s representative office in Ukraine.
He recalled that at the end of April, Bednar decided to finally leave the Russian market as a sign of full support for the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian aggression, and from the first day of the war stopped accepting any orders from Russian and Belarusian dealers and stopped all investments in these markets.
At the same time, all equipment previously ordered by Russian companies was offered for sale to other markets, and several units have already been bought out by Ukrainian farmers.
According to Krishko, before the start of the war, Ukraine was actively fighting for leadership in the annual turnover rating of Bednar, the company expected to increase its share in the company’s turnover to 20% by the end of 2022. The head of the Ukrainian representative office expressed hope that after the Ukrainian victory in the war, the country would become the largest market for Bednar equipment, since most of its units are created to work in the conditions of large agricultural enterprises, which are relatively numerous in Ukraine.
Bednar manufactures agricultural equipment for tillage, seeding, mulching, fertilization and crop residue management. Its products are exported to 39 countries with different climatic and soil conditions.
The equipment manufacturer has been operating in the Russian Federation since 2010 and had representative offices in 10 regions of Central Russia. In 2020, about 75 units of equipment were delivered to the Russian Federation, in 2021 deliveries were increased to 150 units.

CLAAS ESTABLISHES REGULAR DELIVERIES OF SPARE PARTS FOR AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY TO UKRAINE

In order to prevent the disruption of the sowing campaign in Ukraine due to breakdowns of agricultural equipment, the German manufacturer of agricultural machinery Claas has established an automobile channel for the constant supply of spare parts to the country, the company said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
The company made such a decision on the logistics of spare parts, since air transportation of components to Ukraine is now impossible due to the closed sky due to the war unleashed by Russia.
“Claas, despite the absence of air traffic in Ukraine during this period, has established systemic express deliveries of the necessary spare parts for agricultural machinery. Now a shuttle is running from the central warehouse of Claas spare parts in Hamm (Germany) to Ukraine, bringing urgent orders,” he wrote. manufacturer.
The machine-building company emphasized that due to the military invasion of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, all logistics processes were disrupted, which led to the impossibility of meeting the agreed terms for the supply of spare parts, but the company is doing everything possible to support its customers in Ukraine.
As reported, in mid-March, Claas said it was shocked by the escalation of Russian military aggression in Ukraine, as a result of which it stopped production in the Russian Federation and evacuated all its Ukrainian employees to a safe place.
Claas manufactures self-propelled grain harvesters, self-propelled forage harvesters, tractors, trailers for harvesting green fodder, telescopic loaders, balers, self-loading trailers. The main production facilities are located in Germany and France.
According to its Russian branch, Claas in Russia owns a harvester plant in Krasnodar, which has been operating since 2003.
Its branch LLC “Claas Ukraine” (Kyiv) has been operating in Ukraine since 1992. During this time, he imported over 8 thousand units of self-propelled equipment. In Ukraine, the company operates through a network of representative offices located in all regions of the country.

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OTP LEASING BOUGHT AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY FOR UAH 100 MILLION SINCE BEGINNING OF WAR

OTP Leasing LLC, the largest player in the market, has already purchased agricultural equipment worth UAH 100 million since the beginning of the war and intends to increase purchases to UAH 1 billion this spring, Andriy Pavlushin, CEO of the leasing company, said.
“The vast majority of customers paid their monthly payments even in these terrible 50 days of war,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Pavlushin added that the company also helped the Ukrainian army for UAH 58 million in cars, trucks and money, and continues to do so.
On April 6, the CEO announced that after a 41-day break, OTP-Leasing again began financing existing proven agricultural clients of medium and small businesses, “those clients who paid invoices for March on time.”
Pavlushin then indicated that he had bought tractors and seeders for UAH 70 million during the week.
OOO “OTP Leasing” is a part of the European financial group OTP Group. The company was founded in June 2008 as a subsidiary of OTP Bank. Currently, according to the CEO, the company has 2,000 customers and 170 employees.
The company’s revenue for 9 months of 2021 decreased by 44.2% – to UAH 99.71 million, while net profit almost doubled – by 95.7%, to UAH 463.3 million, and assets increased by 31.5% – up to UAH 15.11 billion, including long-term receivables – by 29.2%, up to UAH 14 billion.

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CABINET OF MINISTERS ALLOCATED ADDITIONAL UAH 2.3 BLN FOR “AFFORDABLE LOANS 5-7-9”, SIMPLIFIED REGISTRATION OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

On Tuesday, the government of Ukraine allocated an additional UAH 2.3 billion to the Affordable Loans 5-7-9 program, under which the Cabinet of Ministers compensates the interest rate, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“We have also reformatted this program. Now every entrepreneur can get a loan at 0% in the amount of up to UAH 60 million. The state will pay the interest to the bank,” he said in his address on Tuesday evening.
Shmygal stressed that the restart and resumption of business is a necessary condition for the sustainability of the economy.
The prime minister also noted that the government is providing assistance to farmers, and the sowing campaign has already begun in all regions, except for Luhansk.
“We have provided them (agrarians) with concessional financing for UAH 3.5 billion. At today’s meeting of the government, they decided to simplify the registration of agricultural machinery as much as possible. We are doing this so that sowing work in the field does not stop anywhere,” Shmyhal said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance announced that within the framework of the program “Affordable loans 5-7-9” from February 21 to April 11, 1,391 loans were issued for a total of UAH 3.95 billion.

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