Page 71 - UKRRptJun19

Oleh Bakhmatiuk owner of Avangard Holding, one of Ukraine’s largest egg producers, tells UNIAN that after losing assets in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014: “We decided to reorient ourselves to foreign markets. We export our products to Iraq, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Hong Kong. Now we plan to enter the market of Singapore, and about 20 African countries.”
Ovostar Union, a top manufacturer of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, opened a subsidiary in Dubai and spent $3.3mn to buy two Kyiv region companies last year, the group reported in its annual financial report. Last year, sales destinations were: Ukraine – 55%; Middle East - 26%, EU - 16%, and other countries - 3%. Last year, export revenue increased by 17% to $56mn. This year, Ovostar, plans to increase laying hens by 13%, to 7.9mn head, and to increase egg production by 14%, or 1.8bn eggs. List as OVO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Ovostars reports are scrutinised closely by analysts in Kyiv. Calculating that the company first quarter revenue was $30mn, or a 9% y/y decrease, Concorde Capital’s Androy Perederey writes: “We are keeping our neutral view on Ovostar stock.”
9.2.7 TMT corporate news
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator in January-March 2019 increased total revenue by 20.2% year-over-year, to UAH5.125bn, according to a financial report of the shareholder in the company – Veon international group (before rebranding it was VimpelCom Ltd.), posted on its official website on May 2. According to the report, in Q1 2019, Kyivstar saw a 33.6% rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), to UAH3.223bn. EBITDA margin grew by 6.3 percentage points (p.p.), to 62.9%. Mobile service revenue over the period grew by 20.6%, to UAH4.763bn. Kyivstar said that over 60% of subscribers use mobile Internet, and average data traffic usage grew by 98% in Q1 2019 year-over-year, to 3 gigabytes per subscriber. Average Kyivstar's subscriber uses 585 minutes of voice traffic a month. Strong data customer and data usage growth led to an ARPU (average income per user) increase of 22.8% year on year to UAH60. The minutes of use (MoU) decreased 0.2%, to 585 minutes. Kyivstar's mobile customer base slightly decreased 0.7% to 26.3mn following a decline in the need to use several SIM cards. Fixed-line service revenue grew by 11.4% year on year to UAH329mn, driven by an increase in the fixed broadband customer base of 11.9% year on year, while fixed broadband ARPU increased by 5.9% year on year to UAH75. The number of customers grew by 11.9%, remaining 0.9mn. In January-March 2019, 4G communication coverage is the territory of Ukraine where 65% of the population lives. Reported capex excluding licenses increased by 43.1% and stood at UAH983mn. Kyivstar continued to focus on 3G network improvement and further 4G/LTE roll-out during the quarter. In Q1 2019, Kyivstar sent UAH1.675bn of taxes and other payments to the Ukrainian budget. Kyivstar is a Ukrainian mobile communications operator. VEON international group is the shareholder in Kyivstar. The group's shares are listed on NASDAQ (New York).
9.2.10 Metallurgy & mining corporate news
● Metinvest
EBITDA at Ukraine’s largest steelmaker Metinvest jumped 47.2% m/m in
71 UKRAINE Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com