OREANDA-NEWS. April 30, 2010. Astarta <AST PW BUY> has reported upbeat results for FY2009. Its net revenue climbed by 40% in hryvnia and reached UAH 1355mn, while costs rose by only 17% (UAH 894mn). The result is a gross profit of UAH 446mn for the period (33% gross margin, compared to 26% in 2008). Meanwhile, a considerable gain on the revaluation of biological assets (UAH 139mn), thanks mostly to the sharp increase in milk prices and relatively flat SG&A (8% increase y/y) produced an EBITDA of UAH 568mn (42% EBITDA margin). Furthermore, net financial expenses dropped 2.5x to only UAH 134mn (UAH 342mn in 2008) due to much lower losses on the revaluation of dollar loans of the company. Ultimately, the net profit of the company was UAH 323mn, compared to a loss of UAH 89mn a year before.

Millennium Capital: concerning borrowings, the Company management raised the share of long-term loans in portfolio to 62% from 13% a year before. The rise came mostly from the reclassification of the portion of short-term loans and restructuring of some obligations, as well as disbursement of USD 20mn by EBRD.

Millennium Capital considers the results reported by Astarta as positive; however, Millennium Capital does not expect them to have a significant impact on the stock quotations, since they were already priced in over the two-week period following the publication of the trade update back in March.