Page 73 - UKRRptMay21

15% y/y to UAH11.8/kg in 1Q21.
Compared to 4Q20, prices for sugar increased 22%, for soybean oil and meal increased 16% and 20% and for corn increased 15% y/y in UAHterms.
Astarta EBITDA increases 46% in 2020.
Ukraine’s leading sugar producer and farmer Astarta percentage generated net revenue of €416mn in 2020, down 7% y/y, according to its annual report published on April 12. The key factor in the revenue decline was smaller sales of crops, down 15% y/y to €175mn. Meanwhile, its revenue from sugar sales increased 9% y/y to €127mn. Its revenue from soybean processing fell 9% y/y to €75mn and from cattle farming decreased 4% y/y to €33mn.
The company’s EBITDA improved 46% y/y to €113.4mn and EBITDA margin improved 10pp to 27% in 2020. Net of the effect of biological assets and agricultural produce revaluation, its EBITDA improved 14% y/y to €102.7mn and margin improved 5pp to 25%. Key EBITDA growth drivers were crop farming (50% y/y increase to €80.2mn) and sugar (up 9.4x y/y to €21.5mn). EBITDA in the soybean segment stayed flat y/y at €7.4mn and in cattle farming declined 44% y/y to €8.7mn. The company’s net profit increased 5x y/y to €8.6mn.
Astarta’s cash flow from operations before working capital changes increased 77% y/y to €64.0mn and net cash flow from operations decreased 8% y/y to €159.3mn. With the company’s spending for investment activity decreasing 38% y/y to €13.6mn, Astarta continued to deleverage by repaying net €87.7mn of debt in 2020. Its net debt (including land lease liabilities) halved y/y to €129mn and the net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased to 1.1x as of end-2020, from 3.5x a year ago.
The company is planning to maintain low financial leverage in the future, has no plans to increase its sugar business and expects to retain its 20%-25% share of the domestic sugar market, while it plans to undergo “selective expansion” of soybean processing. It also plans a careful expansion of its product mix “towards higher value added processing.”
● Other
Driving up egg prices, Oleg Bakhmatyuk, owner of Avangard, the nation’s largest egg producer, has halved egg production over the last 18 months, to 170mn eggs a month. He has blamed the criminal prosecution by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, saying it has cut him off from bank loans needed to run his Ukrlandfarming agribusiness.
9.2.7 TMT corporate news
Vodafone Ukraine saw its net profit fall by half (52%) to UAH1.2bn
($43mn) in 2020, due the devaluation of the hryvnia, but at the same time revenues grew April 13 as cited by Interfax Ukraine. CEO of Vodafone Ukraine Olha Ustynova said: "The only and main factor why this happened is the exchange rate difference on our loan. The US dollar exchange rate has
73 UKRAINE Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com