Page 69 - UKRRptMar19

● Astarta Holding
Betting that world sugar prices will rise, Florida-based Kopernik Global Investors LLC has bought 12,947 shares of Warsaw-listed Astarta Holding , raising its stake over 5%. Between February 2017 and August 2018, the price dropped in half. Since then, sugar prices recovered slightly, to 13 US cents a pound. Dragon Capital writes: “Kopernik’s latest share accumulation may reflect bottom-fishing demand in anticipation of a bounce in the sugar market. Astarta’s shares slid by 59% in $terms in 2018, hitting the lowest level since 2015 on a drop in global and domestic sugar prices.”
Wine producer Bayadera Group plans to invest $3mn in wine production
this year, matching last year’s level. Bayadera plans to plant vineyards on 200 hectares in Mykolayiv and to invest in moving from corks to screw caps, Anatoliy Korchynsky, Bayadera director general, tells Interfax-Ukraine.
US-registered Kopernik Global Investors has acquired 12,950 shares in the share capital of the Netherlands-based Astarta Holding NV, the parental company of Ukraine's agricultural giant Astarta . On the completion of the deal, the Kopernik's direct share in the capital of Astarta Holding and in the total number of votes at the company's general meeting has increased from 5% to 5.04%. According to Astarta, the farmer received the notification from Kopernik on February 18. Astarta's share quotation as of February 19 was PLN25 per share, according to the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). In 2017, Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Canadian asset manager, completed the acquisition of the second largest stake in Astarta, controlling 28% of the shares at the time. Astarta cut sugar production, the farmer's core segment, by 24% y/y to 352,000 tonnes in 2018, boosting grain and oilseeds harvesting by 35% y/y, to 1.65mn tonnes, according to the company's reports published earlier via the WSE.
● MHP
MHP, Ukraine’s largest agricultural producer, is obtaining a €120mn loan from ING Bank NV. According to Interfax-Ukraine, the loan is guaranteed by Zernoproduct MHP, the company’s grain unit with assets valued at €192mn. Based in Myronivka, 100 km south of Kyiv, Myronivsky Hliboprodukt is the nation’s largest chicken producer.
Ukraine's largest poultry producer MHP has finalised its acquisition of a 90%-plus stake in Perutnina Ptuj , a poultry meat producer and processor in Southeast Europe headquartered in Slovenia. MHP said in a statement on February 21 that "final consideration amount is subject to completion of the audited results of Perutnina Ptuj due diligence" for 2018. "The company didn’t specify any details about the deal’s value and effect on its operations and financials. But we expect that MHP will bring to light the deal’s details after finalizing the due diligence of its audited results," Andriy Perederey at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital wrote in a research note on February 22. He added that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said recently when announcing that it is considering to provide €100mn financing for MHP that €100mn is the "total project cost" (the project includes the acquisition of Perutnina and “subsequent capital investments in it"). The information from the EBRD is in line with our previous assessment that the deal's value range is $100mn-$120mn, Perederey believes.
69 UKRAINE Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com