News
17.11.2009
Kernel lifts hopes for Ukraine's grain exports
Kernel Holding bid Ukraine's grain exports even higher, saying they may beat official forecasts, as the farming-to-sunflower oil group unveiled a 73% jump in first quarter earnings.
Kernel said Ukraine's grain shipments would hit "at least" the 20m tonnes that Ukraine's farm minister, Yuri Melynk, pegged them at two weeks ago.
"Ukrainian agriculture has delivered a good 2009 harvest," the Kiev-based company said.
The forecast is the latest in a bullish series of estimates for Ukraine, and neighbouring Kazakhstan and Russian, states the US last week highlighted as growing forces in the global grains trade.
Kernel said it expected to "fully capitalise" on Ukraine's better-than-expected harvest through fees taken at its inland silos and its Illichevsk port terminal on the Black Sea, as well as through sales at its bulk vegetable oil business.
Nonetheless, Kernel stuck by estimates of revenues of $1.05bn, and earnings of $130m, for the year to the end of next July, noting that revenues from farming looked likely only to "contribute marginally" to the results.
Forex fillip
Farming profits from Kernel's 85,000 hectares of land, where it grows in the main wheat and oilseeds, were held back to $800,000 in the first three months of the year by low commodity prices and high costs of fertilizer and other inputs.
And although operating profits at the company's core grain business fell by 41% to $8.9m, a better performance in transhipment limited the drop in group profits to 32%.
With a weaker Ukrainian hryvnia providing an $11m foreign-exchange gain on Kernel's dollar holdings, group earnings jumped 73% to $38.8m.
Kernel shares closed up 5.6% at 41.20 zloty in Warsaw.
Agrimoney
