Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I would like to welcome you to MHP's Second Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participant lines are in listen-only mode. The format of the call today will be a presentation by the management team, followed by a question and answer session. So without further ado, I would now like to pass the line to Anna Sobotyuk. Please go ahead, Anna. The line is open.
Thank you very much. Dear stakeholders, good day to you. Thank you for joining us today. We are at MHP's conference call, dedicated to the second quarter and six months of 2024 results. I am Anna Sobotyuk, Director of Investor Relations and ESG Compliance, together with Viktoria Kapelyushna, CFO for MHP. We will discuss MHP's financial and operational results. Today's call is based on the press release and financial statements released earlier today. However, during our call, we will discuss our projections and plans based on our assumptions, domestic and international terms. Please take it into consideration. We are now on slide number three of the presentation. Before I provide you with the macro environment developments in Ukraine, let me update you about war impact on MHP.
While the ongoing war continues to impact MHP's operation, the company has been able to adapt to the challenges of operating in wartime. As of today, over 3,000 employees have been mobilized to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Irregular and frequent drone and rocket attacks against civilian, energy, and other infrastructure targets have resulted in a challenging and disruptive operating environment, leading to unprecedented war-related costs. In the six months of 2024, war-related costs and losses amounted to $26 million. In six months of 2023, they were twice lower. All company operational production facilities in Ukraine continue to operate close to full capacity, and none out of operational facilities of the company's directly owned four assets have suffered significant physical damage from the recent Russian bombing attacks.
Unfortunately, as a result of shelling by the occupying forces on May 17th, in the Odesa region, a warehouse partly used by the company to store frozen MHP chicken meat products was completely destroyed, resulting in the loss of our poultry products worth around $7 million. So let me continue with the macroeconomic situation. Taking into account that many businesses have been adjusting to a new operational environment, which remains unpredictable and volatile in 2024, GDP grew by over 4%, with the forecast growth in 2024 at 3.7%. CPI in Q2 2024 increased by 3%, which doubles CPI growth from Q2 2023. Starting from October 3rd, the National Bank has been implementing managed exchange rate flexibility, resulting in depreciation of Ukrainian hryvnia.
And therefore, we have a flexible currency rate now. 2024 harvest is expected to be strong at 76 million tons, which is around 8% lower year-on-year. I'm talking about Ukraine, of course. Triggered by reduced area under crops and adverse effect on yield due to severe heat in summer. We will touch upon agricultural development at MHP a little bit later during the presentation. Let me now proceed to the company's results for the second quarter of the year, and we move on to slide number five of the presentation. Let me start first with operational highlights for six months of 2023. As you can see from this slide, our sales decreased by 8%, mainly by decreased exports. Total share of export out of total Poultry sales volumes contributed to 57%.
It was a little bit higher last year, 59%. Financial results for six months 2024 were as following: group revenue increased by 4% and reached around $1.5 billion, with export revenue representing 64% of total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 21% to $264 million, mainly due to substantially strong results in the agricultural business, driven by increased grain prices and the strong performance, as well as strong performance at Perutnina Ptuj. However, this was significantly offset by weaker performance in Poultry and Pork Production businesses. So we'll touch upon these two business segments later in the presentation. Let's go on to slide number six, with key financials for the second quarter of 2024 , which were following.
Group revenue remained relatively stable but decreased by 5%, reaching $770 million, and Adjusted EBITDA increased substantially year-on-year and constituted $145 million, which is EBITDA margin of 19%, mainly driven by strong results in agricultural division and European retail segment. Let's move to slide number seven. Here we have the financial results by segment, and as you can see, the biggest contributor to overall company results is Poultry and Processed Meat Operations segment. We generated the majority of total revenue, about 53%, and 59% of the company's EBITDA, with the highest EBITDA margin, 20%, across all business segments. Second biggest contributor to EBITDA was the agricultural division, 26%, and third was the European Operations segment, with 18%.
Let us have a close look at each business segment, and here I pass my words to Viktoria.
Thank you, Anastasiya . Good afternoon, everyone. Let's have a detailed look at both and related operation segment performance. Slide number eight. Despite the challenges of the war in Ukraine, MHP performed well in Q2 this year, due to the, first of all, team hard work and also favorable market conditions. Poultry price in Q2, both on export and domestic market, remained almost at the same level as in Q1 2024 . We do not expect further growth in poultry prices in H2. Commodity price risk is one more challenge for MHP. To mitigate it, MHP is focusing on the production and sales of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook, non-commodity product, as a part of our culinary strategy. This requires a significant effort from our team and investment to launch new product and grow our market share.
The trend will continue in the near future. In Q4, we are continuing to concentrate on selling processed meat, with focus on the most marginal product. Our results for Q2 decreased compared to the last year, mainly as a result of lower sales volume of poultry on the export market. First of all, due to the higher MHP stock of meat at the beginning of 2023. A few words about our vegetable oil segment, slide number nine. EBITDA for vegetable oil operation, last quarter, was similar to the Q1 this year. In H1, we had a negative trend in sunflower oil prices, which led to decrease oil processing margin.
Declining vegetable oil margin year-on-year was primarily due to the drop in oil prices internationally, year-on-year, and also stabilization on vegetable oil production and sales in Ukraine, having adapted to the war operational environment, which did not significant disruption in logistics. We expect margins in the H2 to remain low and to continue to decrease negatively affected by the significant low harvest of sunflower, because of severe heat in summer, which is not expected to be offset by increased oil price at this stage. Let's move to the slide number 10, Agricultural Operations. Segment revenue in H1 amount to $180 million, compared with $100 million last year. This increase was mainly attributable to higher volumes of corn sold on the Black Sea market last half of the year.
EBITDA for agricultural operations segment, net of IFRS 16 in H1, was $69 million, compared to the $26 million over last year. This result was mainly due to use of the higher current market price for intersegment and external sales, compared to the lower prices applied to the previous year harvest. This year, MHP's harvest of wheat was a record high, with 7.2 tons per hectare, and rapeseed was one of the strongest in MHP history, with 3.7 tons per hectare. Moreover, export of crops proceeded well, with no significant disruption of growth in logistics cost. I also want to mention that as of today, we anticipate lower yields of spring crops compared to the last year, due to unfavorable weather conditions in the central region.
Despite of the challenging weather condition, anyway, MHP expects this year for financial result in agriculture segment to be higher compared to the last year. First of all, due to the current high prices of the grain. Let's proceed to slide number 11. Several words about our European Operations segment. EBITDA of European operations segment in Q2 amounts to $49 million, compared to the $20 million last year. This growth was driven by higher poultry and poultry product sales in Slovenia, Bosnia, and Serbia, due to the strategic focus on this market, as well as in line with our production increase strategy. Slide number 12. Your words about our cash flow and liquidity position.
Cash flows from operations before changes in working capital decreased 167 million compared to the $206 million last year, mainly as a result of the low profit for products. Investment in working capital amounts $24 million compared to the last, compared to the situation last year to total release. This change was mainly due to significant release of the sunflower seeds and the vegetable oil inventories in H1 last year, which had been unusually higher at the end of 2022, due to the disrupted logistics from the war. Total CapEx in H1 amounts $134 million, making a significant increase compared to 2023. This rise is primarily driven by our investment in culinary strategy project and also cost optimization.
Secondly, construction of new bioenergy production facility, also expansion and improvement of Perutnina Ptuj production facility and extensive maintenance and modernization of existing facilities. Regarding debt, at the end of the period, the company total debt was nearly $1.5 billion, with net debt about $1.1 billion. As you know, on May 10th, MHP Eurobond 2024 was duly and fully paid as per the terms and conditions stipulated. The liquidity position at the end of H2 was almost $3 billion in cash, $123 million of which was held by the group subsidiary of Perutnina Ptuj . Given current operational environment and the significant uncertainty, we estimate our minimum safe cash balance at $200 million. And now I give the floor to Anastasiya for update and outlook.
Thank you, Viktoria. Let me provide you with our take into account war, operational environment, and current market drivers. Considering the fast-moving nature of the war, MHP can give no concrete assurance that its production facilities and associated infrastructure will not be targeted or adversely affected in future. In the event of future attacks, the group is fully prepared to respond immediately, taking all necessary actions to protect its employees and to develop, restore, and restart production in the shortest time possible. Despite the ongoing challenges, our commitment to ensuring sustainable development remains at the heart of all our economic activities. As a pioneering and innovative data buyer in bioenergy fields in Ukraine, MHP is constantly working on boosting our energy, independence, and resilience by integrating more renewable energy sources into our energy mix.
MHP continues to invest in alternative energy sources to mitigate operational disruptions caused by Russian targeting of Ukraine's national grid and energy sector. If energy disruptions lead to a complete blackout in Ukraine, MHP will not be able to operate at full capacity, and its operations will face a significant increase in production cost, which will negatively impact financial results. We remain incredibly grateful for the support and patience of our investors, who have supported the group as it navigated the most difficult periods in Ukraine's history. A few words about Poultry business. MHP expects its production facilities to operate close to full capacity, with sales in line with budget forecast. In the second half of 2024, MHP expects poultry prices to be stable, both on international and Ukrainian markets.
Grain market remains volatile, showing more positive trends in prices, adversely affected by challenging weather conditions. Perutnina Ptuj continues to grow in sales, holding both growth and culinary strategy of the group. Let me conclude the presentation now here. We are ready for the discussion and your questions. Thank you for your cooperation in advance. Michael?
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Anastasiya, for the presentation. We will now be moving to the Q&A part of the call. If you have any questions, please press star two, star two on your keypad for any questions. You may also ask a voice or a text question, if you are dialed in by the webcast. We'll give a moment or so for any additional questions to come in. Thank you. Our first question comes from Stella Cridge from Barclays. Please go ahead, ma'am. Your line is open.
Hi there, and many thanks for all the updates. And I want just to tackle two areas. Just starting with the energy you mentioned there about trying to grow your internal reliance for power generation. I wondered where you sit at the moment in terms of how much power you're getting internally and through various projects that you're working on now or in the future? You know, where do you think you may be able to reach in terms of internal power generation? That would be great. And, just on the CapEx side I mean, we can give it the half year, would you be able to give us an update on what you plan to spend on the second half of the year? That would be great.
First of all, thank you for the questionn. Yeah, thank you for the question. Regarding energy coverage, which we get self-sufficiency in energy, maybe a question about the electricity. Yeah, because it is about gas, it is a very open issue. But now we have recovered around 40%, and now we are in process and have the CapEx to create co-generation. We will produce even electricity from gas. And that is why we have. Yeah, this is one of the reason why we have the CapEx for this year, because we understand there are at least this new risk regarding electricity. And we see a correlation in price between gas and electricity, and first of all, it is self-sufficiency, safety, security.
Yeah, and together with this combination, we will have probably 50%. We will be 50% association. 50% without generators. Yeah, because without generator, but at the same time, we have generator, which allowed to us to be 100% efficient. Yeah, because it is always the issue. Unfortunately, yeah, I think that, yeah, we cannot guarantee that we can work with generator for 30 days, even for 10 days. I sure that it would be a problem. Regarding the second question about our total CapEx for full year, our expectations are CapEx will be around $300 million-$350 million. It is a CapEx including Ukraine and outside in all European facilities.
That's great, thanks.
Okay, once again, star two for any questions. Star two for any voice questions. You may also ask a text question if you are dialed by web. We'll give a minute or so for any additional questions to come. Okay, we have a question from Mr. Dmitry Ivanov from JFS International. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Thank you for the presentation. Can you hear me?
Yes, please go ahead, Dmitry.
Yes, thank you again for the presentation. Maybe just on the CapEx side, you mentioned like $300 million-$350 million CapEx for the year. I know it still much early for your budget, but how should we look at the CapEx number next year? Because $300 million-$350 million obviously includes some primary projects and energy projects, like you mentioned. If you could provide, like, maybe like some preliminary view on the CapEx next year, that would be great. This is like my first question, and the second question would be, you also like share some guidance dynamic for the second half of the year when it comes to Q segment.
Maybe you could provide your view, some guidance on the EBITDA for the second half of the year. How should you look at the EBITDA compared to the first half or maybe the second half of the previous year? That would be great. And the last question, could you kind of update us on the latest schedule position after June 2024? Thank you very much.
Okay. The question about the total CapEx for next year. Yeah, we expect the total CapEx will be around $250 million. Yeah. It will depend on the amount which you would like to invest in our European facilities. Regarding EBITDA, regarding the EBITDA for this year, yeah, as you see that in Poultry segment and in Vegetable Oil segment, in the first half year, we generate lower results compared to the previous year. And so we expect that for full year, our result in this segment will be low. But at the same time, as I mentioned in the presentation, we expect the higher financial, higher EBITDA in our Grain segment, due to the harvest of the spring. Yeah, despite how the spring growth. And based on our forecast, we see that our EBITDA will be level, yeah, similar to last year.
I remind this would be a growth. Yeah, it was $450 million regarding $450 million, maybe at the end of the year, $460 million. That is, yeah. And that current position is very similar that we have that we had by the end, at the end of July, around $300 million.
Okay, and the proportion of the cash, should we assume lower?
Yeah, completely the same, nothing changes, even slightly below, yeah, broad, yeah, slightly lower, but not going to make any changes.
Understood. Around $100 million.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much. I'll take the next question, two questions from Natalia Shpygotska from Dragon Capital. First question, what are the company's CapEx needs to boost its self-sufficiency in electricity from 30%- 50%?
No, we need approximately $14 million. Yeah, $14 million.
Okay. Second question, could you please comment why the company's poultry export decline, and what drives local meat sales? Thank you.
Poultry export decline, as I told you in the presentation that last year into 2023, we had very so significant stock at the beginning of the year. Now we understand that we can export approximately 95,000. Our usual export approximately 95,000. Last year, at the beginning of last year, we exported a lot because we had in Ukraine a very big stock. Very big stock in storages.
I think we have another question from Brandon Green from Andromeda Capital, perhaps already answered. How has third quarter performance been so far compared to second quarter?
No. Yes, approximately the same level, maybe, yeah, we expect that it's very similar the same level. If you think about Poultry segment, if you think about oil, it was the oil generation quite low, but in general, yeah. But anyway, in general, I expect it to be the second half of the year, we expect the levels in each one. Mm-hmm.
Okay, thank you very much. We'll just give you another 30 seconds or so for any additional follow-up questions to come through. Okay, we have a question from Mr. Magnus Scherman from Reorg . Please go ahead, sir. You are open.
Hi, thanks for taking my question. I want to start on the Black Sea route. I'm trying to get a sense of how much you rely on that route for exports at the moment, and also get your thoughts about how confident you are in continuing that while the war is continuing, in the absence of a firm agreement. Then my second question is about the free trade agreement with the European Union and some of the restrictions that are in there. How much is that impacting your revenues from the EU? And then the third question is on the energy projects. Could you talk a bit about what sort of projects? You mentioned gas to electricity. Is that the only thing you're doing, and what are the lead times on those? Thank you.
Regarding the first question about our confidence in Black Sea, it's open question. It's very open question, to be honest. But anyway, without even [inaudible], we can use our logistics through Constanța. But the logistics through Odesa port is significantly lower than the logistics through Constanța. But it's still an open question. I can similarly. The second question about our free trade within Europe. Yes. We have some limitations. We cannot, we have limitations. And but anyway, we export in Europe and we export in Britain and other region. If you ask me, is it good that we have limitations in Europe? No, it's bad. It would be in yes, the situation bring toward the worse likely or worse result.
But anyway, we understand how we increase our effort in other regions. And this...
In different current energy projects which are in place, just name them.
Yeah, I guess. I think previously we had a project generate electricity from gas, from generation, and even we have a project with our solar energy, and we will, and we will invest. No, and now we investment in this project, total in this project, around $50 mliion-$55 million. Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. We have a follow-up question from Natalia, from Dragon Capital. If 60% self-sufficiency in electricity supply is reached, would that allow full capacity utilization of one of the company's major coastal facilities in the situation of a blackout, or partial capacity utilization on both facilities, in Vinnytsia and Myronivka? Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah, this is what I would like to explain. If I talk about 50%, we have some co-generation. Yeah, generation, alternative generation in electricity in different our facilities, not just in Vinnytsia and Myronivka. And plus, we have generators, yeah, diesel generators. And that is why we understand that a few days, we will be completely self-sufficient to 100%. If the situation will continue more than three days or five days, 10 days, it would be some problems. But anyway, yeah, anyway, yeah, it would be a problem not just in our electricity, it would be a problem everywhere in Ukraine, in the country. Thank you.
Okay. It looks like we have no further questions. I'll hand it back to the management team for their concluding remarks.
Thank you very much, Michael, for your support. Thank you everyone who joined, our conference call and presentation, of course. I remain at your disposal. If you have any other questions which you didn't answer today or we didn't raise today, please go ahead and send me a message. Thank you, and have a wonderful day. Bye.
Thank you very much. This concludes this conference call. We'll now be closing the line. Thank you, and goodbye.