Good morning. Dear listeners, welcome to as Linas Agro Group meeting with investors. I'm Emilia from Nasdaq Vilnius, and I'll be moderating today's event. We will start with a presentation from the management, which will be followed by the Q&A session. Please be informed that this webinar is being recorded and will be available for a rewatch. As always, I encourage every one of you to share your questions in the Q&A section at the bottom of your screen, and you can submit them either anonymously or with your name. With that said, I'm pleased to introduce today's presenter, Chief Financial Officer of the company, Mažvydas Šileika. Mr. Šileika, please, the floor is yours, and good luck.
Thank you v
ery much. Good morning, dear investor community, and thank you very much for joining this morning to listen about Akola Group. Of course, I would like to start with a short disclaimer that the presentation includes or might include forward-looking statements. These, of course, are only reflections or the view of the company's management. My name is Mažvydas Šileika, and I will take you today through the presentation. A very short snapshot of the group. Nothing a lot has changed since the closing of the financial year 2021-2022. The only one thing I would like to highlight is the hectares of arable land we actually manage now, and it has increased by roughly 1,000 hectares.
Now we have 19,229 hectares of managed arable land. It mainly increased due to additional rents from farmers. We did not increase or develop our own landowning portfolio, but we increased the renting part of arable land. We see this as a good development because a strong performance of our farming companies gives effort or gives development to pursue growth opportunities. Rather than that, Group has divested two companies in Russia and one company in Belarus, and this is the main development of the Group since the last financial year. Looking forward, we now manage 67 companies.
As mentioned before, we divested three of them, two in Russia, one in Belarus. We announced that quite freshly regarding Belarus. One company is still left, and we are looking forward to sell this company in the following 12 months. More developments in the structure are related with merger of companies who operate or hold elevator assets. This is a company we acquired from KG Group. KG Group, a partner, is being merged with Linas Agro Grūdų Centrai, and now we will have one single entity which is going to manage and operate elevator network in Lithuania and Latvia.
One dormant company, UAB Dotnuvos Technika, is being renamed to UAB Dotnuva Rent, and we will concentrate all machinery renting activity in this company through all the Baltic states. The main financial highlights of or for the three months of financial year 2022-2023, of course, is that now we have a group which is fully comparable year-on-year. This is the 2nd year as a group, we are operating with the acquisition of KG Group, so we can compare the quarters now very rarely finely. I could say that the quarter, the 1st quarter is really strong, and it's really better than we expected. I have to be frank with you.
For majority of the group segments, inflated prices so far are winning the battle against the inflated costs. Only the food segment and of course, especially poultry segment is an exception and going the other direction. The EBITDA for 1st quarter is EUR 46 million, and we see this as a very good result looking forward. I would like to take a glance at the analytics on our revenues. We delivered a 3rd consecutive quarter of increased revenues, and 1st quarter brought EUR 559 million of sales, which of course were mainly contributed by our grain, oilseeds and feed segment, and it had a very successful quarter. However, we see that our food segment is gaining ground and the diversification of group sales and portfolio is there.
We are delivering more on the diversified sales profile we are aiming, meaning moving towards, of course, food. Key elements of boosting the sales and the drivers are, of course, inflation, and it was noticeable in all segments, and of course, the acquisition of KG group. Even though, you know, we on the right-hand side, we see that the gap is shrinking between the current sales and the sales without KG Group. It's still quite significant. It's around EUR 150 million, so that's the addition of the acquisition.
It's shrinking mainly because we transferred part of the business which is connected with grain trade and sales of products to farmers to Linas Agro AB. Now we have a single, merged activity in one company, where we are, of course, achieving synergies we were expecting. If we look at the profitability of the group, and I would start from the gross profit analysis, you can see that we delivered a 9.5% gross profit margin, which of course is still increasing year-on-year. I would say that the development is really very nice. The biggest contributor this time is grains, oilseeds and feed. Very good results of EUR 29 million.
I would say that the 1st quarter this time is much stronger than it used to be. Historically, the 1st quarter is only the beginning of the trading season. However, due to geopolitics and the developments around the market, we took the momentum and we delivered very strong results. Products and services for farming, a very nice increase year-on-year to EUR 60 million of gross profit. You can see that the growth is flattening out. However, we maintain the momentum and we maintain the opportunities in the market to increase the profitability as well. Farming produced a very nice result of EUR 2 million.
It's a very strong quarter and it also gives some insight for the full year. Farming is doing good. We will talk later about the main drivers of the farming segment and of course, the food segment. Food segment year-on-year is flattish, you can say. We expected this because the 1st quarter is still a bit more favorable for the poultry production than looking forward. Operating profit margin, 6.5%, and is of course, increasing and increasing very, very nicely. We can see that there is some effect on the cost side as well. We are carrying a bit less operating cost this year.
Some of them were of course connected with the decrease of cost related with the integration acquisition as well. Last year we had extra costs related with integration of the businesses. We were carrying some costs from the acquisition process, which we did two years ago now. If we look to the operating profit, we delivered a EUR 38 million. EUR 25 came from the segment of grains, oilseeds and feedstuff. As I mentioned before, we really have a very successful quarter in the trading part of the business. Products and services for farmers, a very nice increase to EUR 10 million. Farming companies, EUR 2 million of operating profit.
The food segment, EUR 3 million, which is roughly flat year-on-year compared to last year's similar amount. Profitability-wise, without acquisition, we would have inked around 5% of operating profit margin, which is roughly, you know, 1%, 1.5% lower than with the full group. I would like to move to our balance sheet structure, we have a record high balance sheet, which, you know, stands a little above EUR 1 billion. It is, of course, mainly comprised of current assets. We have this challenge this year, the prices are still increasing. We see a different development maybe for the 1st, for the 2nd and the 3rd quarter. However, 1st quarter is still on the high note.
This is a challenge for us and we think that we're in a good position to manage it. We have around EUR 500 million of credit lines and various credit facilities, and we have a very solid liquidity position. We are actually having some cash buffers in the balance to tackle the possible further increase in the prices. We are not that highly leveraged in terms of long-term debts, only 20% of the portfolio. For the 1st quarter, the total debt amount stand at roughly EUR 318 million. If we talk further on about our portfolio leverage, you can see that the borrowing base is increasing slightly. Last year, it was 61% for the 1st quarter. This year, it is 66%.
We have an increase in the leverage if we see from the working capital point of view. However, we think that it is still a very good result and we are actually on a good track record to manage it. The capital ratio of the group stands around 28%. We would like to see it higher, but as of now, we think it is a good representation of the balance sheet and our trading season. We are at the peak of our trading season and we expect the capital ratio to increase every quarter till the end of the financial year. For the 12 months rolling EBITDA, we stand at EUR 154 million, which gives a Net Debt to EBITDA at 2.3x. If we adjust it to readily marketable inventories, it goes even down to 1.1x.
I would like to draw your attention that we started to follow the regularly marketable inventories in our balance sheet and reported to you, to the investor community. For the 1st quarter, the regularly marketable inventories were standing at close to EUR 200 million. Yes, last year it was at EUR 166 million. This is the idea that this part of the inventories is really easily convertible to cash in a short period of time and with a very small discount. All in all, the group looks not leveraged at all, even though with such an increased balance sheet. I would like to move to the segment information and I will start from products and services to farmers. As you can see, we delivered a very nice growth year-over-year. Operating profit increased from EUR 8 million- EUR 10 million.
The margin we delivered is decreasing or at least flattening out in some of the parts of the products we are selling. This is, you know, mainly to several reasons, even though you can see here that sales growth is noticeable in all the product categories, except maybe certified seeds is a bit of a flat year-over-year. In terms of tons or tonnage, we are selling less this year. It is mainly due to several reasons. One is that, of course, some of the products became too expensive and farmers are reluctant to buy them. This is, of course, taking the momentum to the next quarters as well. One of the reasons is that part of the products were bought in late spring or early summer and farmers were trying to manage inflationary price risk going forward.
They bought last year for this year. Of course, the other part is that it will be the case that farmers might decide to apply less fertilizers going forward due to the high prices. Even though we managed to increase the profit of this segment, we took the momentum and we managed to offer the specific exact products the market really needed. If we talk about agricultural machinery, very strong quarter for them. Farmers after the season, after the harvest, are really feeling strong financially and they're willing to invest into new machinery. Of course, also high milk prices and very strong results for the milk farms tend to bring more opportunities for us to offer machinery and equipment for the milking industry or milk farm industry.
If we look to agricultural production segment, a strong quarter for them, as I mentioned before, EUR 1.8 in operating profit. The drivers were mainly higher amount of harvest we received this year. It's around 14% higher. We had a good harvest above, slightly above our historical average. With the higher prices in the market, this is a good result. I think farming will be performing nicely this year. The other driver, of course, is milk production. Milk production was very profitable last year. It delivered record high results and it is continuing on the same note the 1st quarter. However, we see the trend as actually in mainly all the segments you operate that the prices for milk is starting to decrease in the market. We will have to be now working or dealing in the environment of probably decreasing milk prices.
Grains, oil seeds and feeds. As you can see, this is a record high quarter for this segment. We delivered a strong result in all the areas. We have a strong quarter for trade of grains and oil seeds. The 1st quarter was really strong due to all the geopolitical risk there in the market. We were delivering good results. However, the situation is very dynamic and it changes to very different reasons. One of the reason is that Russia also had a record harvest. When they started coming into the market, we see that the sentiment in the market is a bit changing. We also see the decrease in prices for the last week or so.
It is maybe a bit of a heads up for the segment through the 1st quarter. It won't be a very even story for the year because the volatility in the market persists and remains. We also had a very strong quarter for our feedstuff and raw material trade. One of the reason is, of course, there is strong demand in the market for feedstuff components. We're also very active in trade from Ukraine, and that of course also gives us extra competitive advantage. We are really active in trade of corn, rapeseed meal, sun extraction coming from Ukraine through both Baltic ports as well as Poland and the rest of Central or Western Europe.
This brought as well a very strong input to the overall result. The last part of this segment is, of course, feedstuff production. Feedstuff production came as a significant activity with the KG Group acquisition. Of course, we are running 100% of the capacity, and we are also exploring some of the efficiencies we can achieve, and this gives a very good result for the quarter. Overall, you know, the EUR 25 million of operating profit is a really strong result. The volatility in the market, for now, helps for the trading activity.
Probably the most challenging segment for the full year, even though the 1st quarter is a bit of a flat, we have EUR 3 million of operating profit, very same as last year. You know, a double feeling here. We have a strong performance of the grain-based food products. It goes both ways. Market is strong, you know, meaning the consumption and the export markets we are working with are really strong. We are able to attract extra margins and deliver products to new customers, as well as our production efficiencies are really very good.
I mean, we are running full capacity now, and we are of course putting more investments, as you probably saw in our news releases to this area as we see this as a very perspective and of course as well profitable activity. On the other hand, we have the poultry business, which of course is struggling year-on-year. 1st quarter is around zero if we look at the net profit line. However, 1st quarter and 4th quarter are the quarters which are less challenging. We expect them to be above water and black figures. However, 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter are the most challenging ones because the energy consumption increases when the temperature outside drops to zero or below zero in Lithuania or the Western Europe.
Of course, the prices of gas are the main implication here. They have been decreasing for a while from the peak, and they came to lower levels. They are still not sustainable and, you know, as of today, the prices starts increase again because the weather, you know, is getting colder. We are putting efforts here. You know, we are switching to other energy sources which are cheaper, at least for now, and we are putting roughly EUR 5 million of investments here to switch to liquefied petroleum gases. We hope that it will help to keep the segment floating above the water.
It is still a development to come forward because it is hard to pass energy prices to final consumers as you know, our products are quite expensive now and the market is really not ready to accommodate even further price increase. Maybe on a bit of a more positive note, which of course is only a very, very early development, we see decrease of main soft commodity prices or main feedstuff input prices, meaning soy meal, vegetable oils. The same goes for grain. This is a bit of a positive development. You know, feedstuff prices, maybe in a very, very near future will start decreasing. The effect is still very, very small.
This is also, you know, something we will have to deal with in other segments. This year, we will be working in our trading environment with decrease in prices in most of the areas. We will see how that goes because that immediately puts pressure on the final product prices, which started to decrease, and we can feel that in the market. We are following the prices in Poland for fresh meat because this is the main indicator or price setter for our area. We see that there is a negative development regarding the prices. The prices started to decrease for live weights in Poland. We will see how that goes and how that will impact.
To finish off with the segment information, other segment is of course quite small in overall portfolio. We are looking at the businesses to make them profitable and exploring any development or any possible development opportunities for them. However, pet food segment is performing well. We are increasing sales and delivering new products to the market, so we expect them to start bringing even more weight and more result to the segment profitability. So we'll see how that goes, even though there are no big developments rather than that in this segment. To finish off with some highlights, so, you know, we are now finishing the integration of grain trading and products and services for farmers business in Latvia as well, the same way we did in Lithuania.
SIA Linas Agro is issuing new shares which will be paid by , KG Latvija, SIA by transforming or paying by the value of the grain trading and products for and services for farming business. On the 25th of August, we sold three subsidiaries as mentioned before, two in Russia and one in Belarus. We recently closed the final transaction in Belarus because we needed approval from their local authorities to go forward with this transaction. We received it, and we closed it. The final effect from the sale of these three subsidiaries is a loss of EUR 3.4 million, and we have already or previously booked an impairment of EUR 2.8 million, and that was already accounted in our last year's result.
First quarter is carrying only 600,000 of this loss from the sale. Overall, we think that the exit from these markets was quite successful overall. On the 24th of November, Linas Agro Group paid out dividends in amount of EUR 5 million, and it was roughly EUR 0.0313 per share, and the dividend yield stands at 2.45% as of day before the ex-dividend date. The annual shareholder meeting, new board was elected for four years, and a new supervisory board was established, so this is a new corporate governance development. The group now has a supervisory board of three members for the four next years. Two of them are independent.
Another development in our reporting or in the way we present ourselves, we really started the sustainability journey and on the 28th of October, we reported or we published the 1st extensive GRI Standards-based sustainability report. You can access it at our website and please explore it. This is a report where we state our sustainability footprint as well as the strategy going forward. A few things going forward. We're still working and looking for potential sale of the remaining Belarusian company called KLM. It is held under assets held for sale. However, the company financially is not that maybe attractive for investors.
The activity is also quite volatile, and it's not actually for now an easy sale or easy exit, but we are continuing on the chosen path. Regarding our, you know, the status of the sowings, so our agricultural companies have sown close to 11,000 hectares, and we consider the crop quality to be good or very good. So far, the beginning of the next season looks fine. Of course, poultry business, we are working on energy efficiencies, as mentioned before, both savings as well as possible, you know, diversification of our energy sources. Thank you very much for listening and looking forward to your questions.
Thank you very much for the presentation. Indeed, now we will proceed with a Q&A session. Before that, I would like to remind all the attendees that you are welcome to send in your questions in the Q&A box of your screen, and you can send them anonymously too. Let's begin. The 1st question that we received is as following: Linas Agro Group shares are one of the cheapest in Nasdaq Baltic market looking in at P/E or price-to-book ratios. Does management consider about share buyback? Thank you.
As of now, we have no plans of share buyback, probably you noticed that we haven't attributed any reserves for that in the annual general meeting. Probably there are several reasons for that. I agree that, too, in comparative terms or in comparative ratios, the stock looks cheap. However, Group has quite a lot of investment plans going forward. For this year, we have EUR 55 million of investment pipeline. We need the money and the extra liquidity for the investment, we haven't allocated that for any share buybacks. The other thing is that with any share buyback, we also are cringing on our liquidity of the shares.
I think this is also very important for the shareholders to have a liquid share in the market and to be able to trade it. That's also one of the factors which, you know, maybe is pressing the share price in a sense. I think it's good that we have ideas and investment pipeline. We see where we can earn good profits. You know, we want to continue on the growth story of the group. If you look on the other side, for the last 2.5 years, the price, the share price has appreciated more than 200%. I think we are delivering quite well on the strategy we have laid down, and it also is impacting share price positively.
Thank you very much for your answer. The next question would be: What the food and feed industry trends should be monitored by the stakeholders of Linas Agro Group moving toward desirable outcomes for the next three- five fiscal years? Thank you.
That's, that's a very good question. As you can see, the group now is really diversified, and it's being impacted by a lot of different factors. To establish or to note only a few of them would be probably quite hard. If we talk about the trading segments, it's always very good to look at the inventory of global global inventory of grains, oilseeds. You can see or you can have a sense how the prices might move. Of course, we're always trading on premiums or margins, so the overall price or the general price is not always that important for us. I think the main trends are to watch our the consumption sides, you know.
How, how world is consuming food. Is the consumption growing of grain-based food, of milk, of chicken meat and other meats as well? This is a very good indicator of the supply side, you know. If the market is growing, of course there is opportunities for the group as well. The cost side, as you can see now, the energy prices are really important. If we look at the cost side for our production businesses, gas price, electricity price makes the difference or makes the impact. If we look to the agricultural impact or agricultural production side and with the farmers we work, the prices of fertilizers and other inputs is really important as well.
Thank you very much. Let's proceed. Could you reveal who bought the shares in Belfidagro? Is it Aventus Finance? Maybe you can disclose the value of the transaction. Was it symbolic price or not?
We have reported to the market that the sale of three companies was made, and we received for all three companies EUR 7.5 million. I think this is a very good indication how much we received from those three companies. I don't think there is a lot of difference how much we received for a single of those. I think even though it came with a discount in the market, in the management opinion, it was a successful exit. I think that we have reported as much as we can due to confidentiality regarding the acquirer or the price or the other parts of the deal. I would probably not in the position to comment that further.
Thank you very much. What are the prospects for the sale of Vitomek?
Vitomek has been sold. So maybe it was the question is more about KLM. This is the single entity in Belarus left. As I have commented roughly, it is a bit of a harder sale. We are continuing on the process. However, due to the specifics of the company, the market it is operating in and maybe the financial position of the company, we haven't yet found a specific buyer or a buyer who is interested in this area of business.
Thank you very much. Given really strong EUR 25 million EBIT for grain feed segment, what is the approximate share of Ukraine trading?
Well, it is moving from quarter to quarter because the volatility in the delivery or the volatility in the supply chain and the logistic channels is very, very high. It depends from quarter to quarter how much we manage to receive commodities from Ukraine. If we look at the composition, how much it could be, I would say it fluctuates around 10%-15%.
Thank you very much. Any chance sustainability steps are in a way of cheaper ECB funding programs?
Our sustainability strategy overall has a lot of aims. One of course is that LinrAgro Geoniaus Group wants to be the good corporate citizen. The oher part is that we really want to take care regarding the environment, employees, partners, shareholders. We of course are aiming to get any possible benefits out of that. One of the benefit could be better pricing or more attractive pricing for the group. I cannot say that this is a number one aim and that we are only working for that. I think regarding the price, the funding market and the pricing mechanisms for sustainable products or sustainable loans is still there in the development.
If there will be positive trends there, I think we will be well established to take them.
Thank you. Could you give us some information on the new food production plans that you are planning to build, and, what will it produce? What are the planned volumes? Thank you.
We have communicated to the market that we are looking into investments into food production related with instant noodles. We are going to expand our instant noodle production. We are also looking to other opportunities in the grain-based business. Not all of them are yet settled and can be public because we are undergoing planning and setting up. We are expecting to increase our at least instant noodle production by somewhere, you know, 10%-15%. If that goes well, we might go even further.
Thank you. Andre is congratulating you on splendid results and is asking: Could you please elaborate a bit on the expected EBITDA this financial year? Thank you.
I'm probably not in a position to give a lot of guidance on the full year EBITDA because I think the market is too volatile, and we still have three quarters to go. Volatile meaning on both sides, trading side and commodity prices. The other part is of course our poultry production, which will be for sure hurt by the high gas prices. However, the extent is very volatile as well, because you can see how the gas prices are moving. They are very volatile, and we don't know how much it might, you know, change.
The other thing is that we are not always in the position to attain the same market prices from our gas providers, and there are really particular reasons for that. However, I probably can say that, and I would like to be more on the conservative side, that this quarter was better than expected. I think we have a bit of a uplift for the full financial year. The critical ones will be 2nd and 3rd quarters will be the most critical ones, which will put or will pave the way for the full year result.
Thank you for your answer. Another attendee is congratulating you on the great Q1 results and asking: What is the result at the bottom line for Russia and Belarus company sale, and was it reflected in Q1 financials? What is the potential loss of the last Belarus company sale at pessimistic scenario?
The full loss of the sale for the sale of the three companies is EUR 3.4 million. 2.8 out of that was booked already last year. We made an assumption, and we booked a loss or impairment of EUR 2.8 million last financial year. That's already accounted. Only 600,000 was then booked in the 1st quarter of this year. EUR 600,000 is the loss we booked from the sale in the 1st quarter. Regarding the sale of KLM, very hard to say. I would say that it won't have a significant effect for the financials of the group for sure, as it is not a significant counterparty or a subsidiary in the group.
What will be the final result, it will depend of course on the final price and of course the timing when we will sell it because, you know, the it also depends on the result of the company which is bringing to the group consolidated figures. We will see, definitely it won't be a significant effect for the group consolidated figures.
Thank you for the explanation. Another question is on grain trade. Where do you see the gross margin for this segment this fiscal year? Back in time it hovered around 3%, but last year and in Q1 it seems to be extraordinary. Thank you.
Correct. It looks too good. As I mentioned before, looks really very good. We have to take into account that we had a Well, we had the very good market conditions which we were able to exploit. The market is that volatile and that changing that it's really hard to say how much we will sustain. It's not only the trade from the Ukraine which matters, but also the overall global trends and the geopolitics. You know, you can see how the grain price is moving when, you know, when everyone starts to talk about the grain corridor in the Black Sea. That's also a very big driver. The market really changed when Russia started exporting grain.
They had a record harvest, and they started flooding the market with grain. You know, grain is not a sanctioned commodity or sanctioned product, and market is, pretty well, you know, buying the Russian grain. That was also a very big changer in the market. I want to say that, you know, how much it is volatile, it can go, both ways, profitable and, and not that profitable. You know, we are in the position and we are really, in the market all the time, to use the opportunities. I think that the 1st quarter we, booked, some extraordinary results, so it might be hard to follow them next quarters, and it might even out, going forward.
Thank you very much. We still have quite a few questions remaining, so let's continue. If possible, aside from energy efficiency investments, could you share what other initiatives CapEx is planned for? Thank you.
Probably the most interesting part of group-wise, I would say that, you know, we are investing into food production, as mentioned before. That these are investments in the Kauno Grūdai business area. We're also further developing machinery rent business, which is also a thing where we want to be a leader in the market. Because it is something that has to be or you have to have in the market to be competitive. We always invest into our farming companies or agricultural production segment. That's, of course, mainly related with ongoing investments into, you know, our machinery, farming infrastructure. We also are buying some land every year by year.
Roughly, you know, we spend EUR 1 million for land acquisition. We're also looking to invest into some energy projects, so meaning, you know, solar panels, and similar. You know, these are the main investments. Group has its own maintenance investments every year. That's roughly around EUR 10 million-EUR 12 million, which we have to do. This is basically wear and tear every year. Everything above that, you know, is our expansion investments. We'll see how much of those we will deliver this year. Maybe roughly like this.
Thank you. In your strategy, dividend payout ratio is 20%. At what conditions this ratio could be significantly above 20?
This ratio could be above 20, if we have no major acquisitions on the table or, you know, major investments, CapEx-wise. Of course, if we see that, the market group is operating is stable enough and that payment above 20% is or will not hurt the liquidity position of the company, will fulfill the possibility to operate smoothly and, you know, borrow from the creditors and deliver our credit liabilities. These are the main things that we would be thinking when paying out more than 20%.
Thank you for your answer. As you have recently made a large acquisition, do you think that the Linas Agro Group could make additional acquisitions in the Baltics in line with the competition law? Thank you.
We probably can make a few or a bit in different areas. As there is probably also a answer in the question, it is very correct. I think that expansion in the Baltics is limited in a sense that we would probably reach high levels of concentration in some of the markets, and we would be not able to attain approvals.
Thank you. We still have four more questions, so let's continue. Your Q1 EBITDA result reach half a full year target. Are you going to revise the target for the current financial year?
No, we will not be doing that. The reasons being, of course, the volatility in the market. The other thing is that the target is there to set some sort of a long-term aim. I think it needs a bit more time with the new combined group after the acquisition, after the synergies, to say that we are in a position to give a new EBITDA guidance for the full year. This is really an indication what the management expects the group can deliver, and we believe it is attainable in the long term at this point in time.
Thank you. Could you please indicate how much grain inventories Linas Agro carried over from last year?
The grain inventories were not significant. I would not be now in a position to say the specific numbers, but grain inventories were quite low. We had some inventories in terms of other feedstuff commodities, like, you know, vegetable oil, sunflower meal, corn. Rather than that, grains and oilseeds were on the low side as we try to always to minimize the inventory part. The balance sheet had carried more account receivables in the end of the year. You know, our debt was related mainly with financing account receivables. This is also, you know, a challenge for us because the account receivables have inflated as the prices for agro inputs have inflated.
One of the reasons why we need more working capital and more financing is, of course, the prices of grains and soft commodities, but as well as the prices of inputs and account receivables we keep on the balance sheet.
Thank you very much for your answer. Do you consider any expansion plans in Ukraine after war conflict ended, or do you prefer to stabilize existing operation after KG Group acquisition?
So far we have no plans for a further or bigger expansion in Ukraine. I think we have a very good operating model there. We have a company which is basically a representative's office. We have a person on the ground. He is trading and helping to acquire commodities locally and transfer them through the border, and I think that's a very efficient model and a safe model to operate, at least for now and for the future. We have no plans there, at least for now, and we will concentrate more on the core businesses of ours, meaning grain trade, Baltic grain trade, inputs, products and services for farmers, agricultural production and, of course, food production.
We have ideas there, and probably, would consider expansion in the Baltics or to the Northern or Western Europe, if so.
Thank you very much. It seems that we have the last question for today, which is as following: How do you see your risk management procedures working in this volatile environment? Will it prevent from losses in grain trade? Thank you.
We try to update and develop our risk procedures every season, and, you know, learn from any lessons we see or any developments in the market we see. As of now, we are in a good position and I think we are following our risk positions closely, trying to be sometimes even more conservative. The short answer would be yes, I think that we are always on the position to improve them.
Thank you very much for the interesting Q&A session. As all the questions are answered, on behalf of Linas Agro Group and Nasdaq Vilnius, thank you everyone for joining us today. The recording, as always, will be available in the company's website and Nasdaq Baltic YouTube page. Dear management, thank you very much. Have a good day everyone and goodbye.
Thank you. Goodbye.