OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 June 2008 ASTARTA Holding N.V. published its Annual Report 2007 with audited financials.

In 2007, the Group's revenue grew to about EUR 88 million compared to EUR 68 million in 2006, or by 29%. Net profit grew 4 times to EUR 23 million y-o-y.

These high financials are the result of a consistently implemented strategy to increase production and sales as well as to take full advantage of the favorable market situation by concentrating on segments with higher profitability. Thus, the increased Group's production of sugar, grains, oilseeds and cattle farming produce was amplified by significant growth in prices in 2007.

Furthermore, the Group has increased the production efficiency by pushing down the cost of inputs and overhead expenses ultimately. Namely, the share of the in-house grown sugar beet in 2007 reached 71% of the total volume processed by the Group's sugar plants (42% in 2006), that had a significant impact on the prime costs of sugar produced.

The Group continued the implementation of a four-year program of sugar plant modernization aimed to decrease energy consumption and to increase efficiency. In 2007 this already resulted in a material decrease in consumption of the natural gas per unit of product. 

Alongside operational activities in 2007, the Group intensively invested into property and equipment, and the acquisition of corporate rights in agricultural enterprises. During the reporting year, the Group acquired 12 agricultural companies in the Poltava and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine and increased acreage of agricultural lands in use to 135 thousand hectares.  More than two-thirds of EUR 23 million in investments were made to modernize production capacities and purchase modern agricultural machinery.

ASTARTA increased its share in the Ukrainian sugar market to 8.4% with more than 155.5 thousand tons of sugar. To follow the trend of the previous periods, the Group has strengthened its position in the Ukrainian B2B segment by supplying around 80% of sugar produced to large industrial companies.

Due to all the abovementioned factors, the Group's gross margin in 2007 was 28% against 21% in 2006. Net profit grew from EUR 5.8 million in 2006 to over EUR 23 million in 2007. Also in 2007, the Group's profit from operations showed a significant increase to about EUR 26 million against EUR 7 million in 2006. The EBITDA margin in 2007 more than doubled to 35% against 17% in the previous year.