Mironovskiy Hleboproduct SA, a Ukrainian poultry and grain producer, said second-quarter net income increased 83 percent on higher chicken prices and exports.

Net income jumped to $122 million from April through June, compared with $67 million a year earlier, as the average chicken price rose by 25 percent, the Kiev, Ukraine-based company, said today in an e-mailed statement. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased by 45 percent to $147 million, according to the statement.

“We can say that the first half had a very good start and the annual EBITDA will rise by at least 25 percent to 30 percent,” Chief Financial Officer Viktoria Kapelyushnaya said in a phone interview in Kiev today. “Chicken-meat prices will be on par with last year in the second half.”

Chicken exports increased by 30 percent to almost 20,000 metric tons in the first half of the year, from the same period a year earlier, as the company expanded into African markets, it said.

MHP expects to harvest grain from 250,000 hectares this year and its yields of wheat at 5.4 tons per hectare, are almost twice the average in Ukraine, according to the statement.

A possible hryvnia devaluation after October elections “is being widely talked about,” Kapelyushnaya said.

“Even with hryvnia devaluation, we have sufficient export revenue to cover our debt,” she said. “It is not going to affect our EBITDA. It will affect our net income because we’ll have losses caused by foreign exchange rates as our debt is in dollars. Those will be non-cash losses.”


 

Bloomberg