Hello everyone, thank you very much for joining the call on Astarta's 2023 results. We will quickly go through the presentation with the key numbers that we published yesterday. You can see that the company increased the revenues across the board, in agriculture, sugar production, cattle farming, and very stable top line in the soybean processing. Gross profit increased, but the margin squeezed a bit, from 41%-36%. And EBITDA contraction was from 30%-23%. However, we would like to draw attention to our margins, excluding the impact of IAS 41. That was still at a very respectable level at 24%. If we switch to our balance sheet and cash flow - Mm-hmm. We continue to maximize our operating cash flows, which were well above EUR 100 million in 2023. If you can put yourself on mute, please. Yes, thank you. This is Robert. Can you put yourself on mute?
Thank you. Investing cash flows were at EUR 40 million as we started to invest into expansion in the soybean processing and also modernization in sugar production. Some of this investment is related to our decarbonization strategy and targets, which we announced at the end of the year. However, with all these investments, our leverage in the balance sheet remained rather helpful at 1.1% net debt to EBITDA. Now turning to every segment details. We start with agriculture, where, unfortunately, the pricing situation became less favorable for Ukrainian producers. The global prices went down, and the domestic prices available for the local producers were further lower because of the high logistics costs of getting grain and oils harvested out of Ukraine. Nonetheless, the company had record-breaking harvests last year on account of favorable weather conditions.
We also did inland trading, and our grain and oil seed sales were 1.5x higher. The following page gives data for the last three years on our yields compared to average Ukrainian, as well as what we are doing in terms of the crop rotation. It is no secret that getting wheat and corn out of Ukraine is a very, very costly exercise. Therefore, we changed our crop mix in favor of soybeans and sugar beets, which we process internally in our downstream operations, while we are reducing acreage under corn from 40,000 hectares just two years ago to 6,000 hectares this year. This is the key statistics for the market in general and also to show the price differential between international commodity prices and Ukrainian prices available to domestic producers such as Astarta.
This pricing gap is due to very costly logistics of getting produce overland and through the sea seaports. Odesa port was the main gate for Ukrainian harvest, and the volumes increased due to the efforts of the Ukrainian Navy, which reopened the sea corridor for Ukrainian goods. And this time it was opened not just for agriculture but also for the steel and other sectors. Sugar production, the output is increased. We continue to serve domestic market, our key clients, but also expanding our exports geography to cover EU, which was open to us since the new free trade regime was introduced by Europe at the beginning of the war. The sugar price was also quite favorable, domestically and internationally, although one can see that the selling and distribution costs are higher last year because of the higher exports volumes, first of all to the EU.
EBITDA was at 20%, which is only slightly lower than last year. CAPEX reflects our switch to bioenergy fuel in sugar production, as well as modernization of existing plants. Market fundamentals remain difficult domestically in Ukraine. But since reopening of the European market, Ukrainian farmers and producers increased acreage under sugar beet. Ukraine was able to export over 500,000 tons since the European market opened for trade. The key markets within the EU were south, South European countries, including Romania, Italy, such like. Soybean processing remains very stable on the top line and also on the margin level despite significant decrease of price for soybean oil, which reflects the efforts of Astarta commercial team to manage crushing margin and the costs.
CAPEX, which was significantly increased last year, is related to our expansion in the processing, which we announced, with introduction of the new product, in the next couple of years, soybean concentrate. Cattle farming largely stable on the margin side, but we increased output, as well as herd of our cows, and the milk sales were up by more than 10% last year. We continue to produce premium quality premium-priced milk for domestic dairy processors. And that also required heightened CAPEX into expansion of premises for a larger livestock size. On the strategy side, obviously, the war has been waging for the last several years, and we are pleased to report that our strategy did not change. We would like to move into more value-added products. We embarked on our journey on decarbonization, despite the environment in Ukraine.
But we continue to put every effort into the safety and security of our personnel. First of all, physical security. Within our maintenance CAPEX, we are building shelters, bomb shelters for our employees. And also we have more than 500 people serving in the army. We have our employees coming back from military combat zones, and they continue to be employed during their service, and they come back to peaceful jobs at Astarta, and we provide all support for them to continue to contribute to our business. The rest of the presentation is a short update on our non-financial matrix. We reported most of it publicly, including the first-ever sustainability-linked loan we received from the EBRD last year.
We are pleased to report that our standing within the Carbon Disclosure Project was upgraded from D to C, and we continue to expand our regenerative agriculture practices in upstream operations as well as increasing share of renewable energy in downstream operations. With this, we would like to invite your questions. If it is possible, we would like to see them in writing. I can see already in the chat box, which I'm going to read out very quickly. The first one comes from Martin. What is the scale of current energy supply disruptions? I would like to start to answer these questions that yes, of course, energy, especially thermal generation in Ukraine is severely hit by the recent missiles. And according to the largest thermal operator, DTEK, their capacities were impacted the most.
However, if we look at our business model on a segment-to-segment basis, we remain to be mostly energy independent from energy from electricity distribution grid, because our sugar processing plants generate their own electricity from gas from plant pellets during the sugar processing season, which lasts only several months per year. Our soybean crusher and one sugar mill consumed biogas, which we increased to more than 10 million cubic meters per annum in the natural gas equivalent. And in soybean crushing and sugar mill, which is located nearby, we're able to replace almost all natural gas consumption with in-house-produced biogas. Our grain storage facilities have backup diesel generator backups, and our field machinery operates on conventional fossil fuel.
So, we are not really dependent on the national electricity grid, but we understand the importance of using renewable energy in our fuel mix, and we would like, and we are increasing, alternative fuel consumption. Where do you see local sugar price over the next few months? Is it roughly one-third below summer 2023 peak? I would like to first ask our Commercial Director, Viacheslav Chuk, to address the first question before we turn to the next one.
Thank you, Yuliya. Good afternoon to everyone. First of all, I would like to mention that, with the opening of the Ukrainian sugar market, we've been quite in parity to the European and global sugar prices. So, local sugar prices, more or less, moves with the trend of the global.
However, Astarta also serves key global clients in Ukraine, which we serve with a higher quality sugar in different packaging and in different logistic ways. So it could be somehow different from those you see from the public sources. And we see that the season of the consumption in Ukraine due to the summer coming closer, it's more or less the price is going up. However, we see it already stabilized on the levels which could be comparable in the European markets. Thank you.
Next question. What is the break-even realized price for sugar from 2023 production campaign?
I think, as I mentioned, we are quite close to the European market indicator. So this is kind of the similar which we have for the European prices and, yeah.
And with limits from EU, I think we are talking about the recent limits. Do you see other possible destinations for sugar exports?
As of now, Ukraine still deliver to the European Union under the free quota without any additional quotas. So till the 5th of June, we export to European Union also. And meanwhile, we have the other markets, mainly is Mediterranean markets, North Africa and West Africa, which is logistically wise and consumption-wise, they are we serve these markets.
And do you see an oversupply of sugar for 2023/2024 season given the EU limit?
For 2023/2024 sugar, the campaign we are selling right now, the sugar from that campaign, we believe that with this trade routes we have available as of now, there will be no high oversupply on the market.
Mm-hmm. Next question comes from Jakub. In fourth quarter, the unit cost of sugar production fell by 2% despite significantly lower gas prices and high yields per hectare of sugar beets. Is it fair to say that the unit cost of sugar production in 2024 will be similar year on year? I would like to pass the floor to CFO Liliia Lymanska.
Thanks, Yuliya. We expect that it will be less than 2023 per cost.
Just would like to add that we, together with the press release on our annual results, we underlined that the weather conditions for harvesting, including sugar beet, were quite difficult last year, and this affected the cost for the fourth quarter. In recent days, there has been new information about bombing by Russia. Are you affected by energy shortages in milk production or soybean oil processing? Does the bombing affect fieldwork? I think we answered this question already.
So we are fairly energy independent. Could you verify Ukraine's farm industry has said it expects 2024 sugar beet sowing area could rise to 280,000 hectares from 213,000? Yes. Again, Viacheslav will address this issue.
Thank you very much, Yuliya. I, as of today, we see that around 220,000 hectares of sugar beet already in the field. It's already sold. And we do not expect high increase to the sowing area in comparison to the previous year. So as of now, we see it almost flat.
Mm-hmm. What about the dividend? It would be nice if you could share the profits. We, investors, also experience your problems, and we want to be rewarded for it. Well, obviously, our problems are quite evident. The company operates in severe wartime conditions. However, you can see the bottom line results are very respectable level.
We continue to increase our revenues and the scale of business, and exports in particular. The company started paying dividend several years ago, with an intention to continue dividend payment, although during the war, we had a break. So, the issue will be considered by the shareholders' meeting, and that will happen in the next several months. Could you please update on the progress of the soybean processing line investment announced in September? Specifically, what percentage of the project has been completed, and when do you anticipate the investment will be fully implemented? We reported the start of the project. You can see in the CapEx for the last year that it was already reflected in the overall investments. The project should take at least two years in making. For any plant, it takes at least two years. But we are in a special situation in Ukraine.
Therefore, we cannot provide certainty here. We continue to plow, literally and figuratively, and to increase soybeans production, soybean processing, and going into new products. So, just bear with us. It's a matter of a couple of years, and hopefully, this will be done on the shortest possible timetable. Progress of the investment for the sugar storage warehouse at the Narkevychi sugar plant? And when do you expect the investment to be fully realized?
I would like to answer this question, Yuliya. Thank you. As we see, we have this project in line with our anticipation to finish it before the campaign, before the campaign which is coming.
Mm-hmm. Same question, I guess, on Chernihiv storage. This is something that we put a bit on hold given the geography where this asset is located. I think that would be a reasonable explanation for our shareholders.
Given recent shipment of 3,000 tons of sugar to a North African country, do you see potential for increasing sugar exports by sea?
Jakub, thank you very much for your question. As of now, it's already 15,000 tons, which were sent via Black Sea to these markets. And we still see potential to increase. We have already contracts, and we are executing them. So it will be 20,000 more as of now, and we are continuing our work.
Mm-hmm. Yes. So we have a ballpark figure. We will not provide the guidance on a quarterly basis. Could you clarify what you mean by the company's plans to invest in projects that will add value in the future?
We are talking about the already announced project, soybean concentrate plant, and we are looking at similar products which will be further processing from the commodities we already produce. But until we formally approve and announce, we cannot comment. Branching into new areas such as owning a fleet of ships for transport on the Black Sea. I believe Viacheslav can confirm that we are not an infrastructure company. We are mainly an agricultural production and processing company. So, at this particular moment, we don't have such a plan to own a fleet of ships.
And I think it was to mention that the new harvest will be 10% less than previous harvest. So we do not consider that the logistic capacity will be overloaded.
Yes. Yep.
If upcoming cash flows are sufficient to cover a dividend, will the management board provide a positive recommendation regarding the dividend payment? I think we are very transparent with our results and how they compare to the previous year. So, this will be considered by the board and by the general meeting in the next couple of months. Can you please tell us more about your focus for 2024? How do you see it so far comparing to 2023? We, as an agricultural company, are operating in the highly volatile commodity market, but also now during the war, we cannot provide specific guidance. We can provide guidance only for our investments, and this is likely to be at the level of the previous year. But we cannot provide guidance on our future profitability.
Could you please tell us if the company is considering continuation of the buyback program and if Mr. Ivanchyk is planning to continue his personal transactions on the market? As a company, we unfortunately cannot comment on the future actions of our shareholders. We, as a company, get notified when the purchase of shares takes place, and we'll continue to do it in the future. On the company buyback program, I think last year it was clear that we paid a dividend, but not the buyback as an equivalent option. So this is again something that will be announced in the next several months in relation to dividend. Unless any more questions are coming through. Yes. Uh-huh.
My next question, my understanding is that the payment of dividend in the current currency controls in Ukraine are impossible, or at least it will not be welcomed by the Ukrainian authorities. I would appreciate your comment in this regard. Yes, there are severe currency controls in the country because it is in a state of war, and the central bank and the government rely heavily on external assistance. However, last year, we were able to pay a dividend, and we need to see how this situation will work out this year. I don't see any more questions coming through. I'll wait for another couple of seconds. Thank you very much, everyone, for participating in this call. And as usual, we can follow up with any individual inquiries via email. Have a nice afternoon. Bye-bye.