Ukrnafta sold 0.96 MMbbl of oil at the latest local auction, recording an average price of $63.0/bbl (+8.3% vs. October sales).

WSE-listed Astarta Holding, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, reported that CEO Viktor Ivanchyk acquired, via Albacon Ventures Limited, 100,000 shares in Astarta on Nov. 19, bringing Albacon’s total shareholding to 9,597,294 shares, or 38.39% of the total outstanding.

Retail trade turnover rose by 11.0% y-o-y in October, accelerating from 8.6% in September and bringing the 10M19 tally to 10.2% y-o-y, up from 9.8% in 9M19 and 6.3% in 10M18. In the meantime, the Consumer Confidence Index inched down by 1.6 points m-o-m in October, to 95.9 on a 0-200 scale, after advancing by 32 points in April-September.

The government appointed independent directors to the Supervisory Boards (SB) of Oschadbank (Janne Harjunpää, Juan Enrique Perez Calot, Igor Mityukov) and Ukreximbank (Laszlo Urban). The Finance Ministry said the selection process was competitive and in full compliance with relevant legislation and involved representatives of international financial organizations including the World Bank, IFC, IMF and EBRD.

WSE-listed Astarta Holding, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, announced that Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG), a member of the German banking group KfW and leading European development finance institution lending to private enterprises in emerging markets, approved $20m in financing for the company.

Ukrainian Railway (RAILUA) CEO Yevhen Kravtsov announced the company decided to move all its operations to lease out freight cars (open cars, grain hoppers, etc.) to the state electronic procurement system ProZorro. He added the system currently accounts for about 30% of RAILUA’s freight car leases.

Russia’s VTB Group is reportedly close to finalizing a deal with WSE-listed Kernel Holding to acquire its 50% stake in a grain export terminal in the Russian port of Taman.

Production of ROM coal (thermal and coking) in Ukraine dropped by 4.0% y-o-y to 25.6 Mt in 10M19 (data excludes Krasnolimanskaya Mine, which stopped reporting its production statistics). Coking coal output fell 2.8% y-o-y to 5.1 Mt and steam coal production was down 5.6% to 20.5 Mt. Production at state coalmines dropped 12% y-o-y to 3.0 Mt, including 2.2 Mt of steam coal (-23% y-o-y) and 0.7 Mt of coking coal (+64%).

LSE-listed MHP, Ukraine’s largest poultry producer, held a conference call to discuss its 3Q/9M19 results and outlook.

Agricultural production in Ukraine dropped 6.7% y-o-y in October (vs. +9.0% y-o-y in September), remaining up 3.3% y-o-y in 10M19 (vs. +5.9% in 9M19), driven by the crop farming subsector (+3.9% y-o-y in 10M19).

The Finance Ministry sold UAH 1.3bn of hryvnia-denominated bonds at an auction yesterday, falling short of the auction’s UAH 2.8bn volume cap and last week’s sale of UAH 3.3bn. MinFin sold UAH 0.6bn of 2-year bonds at 13.5% (-114bp from previous placement on Oct. 29), a fraction of the respective UAH 2.0bn cap, UAH 0.5bn of 12-month paper at 13.46% (-28bp w-o-w), and UAH 0.1bn of 3-month debt at 13.95% (-40bp vs. two weeks ago). The auction proceeds also fell short of this week’s scheduled redemption of UAH 1.6bn, resulting in a net repayment of UAH 0.3bn, down from last week’s net placement of UAH 3.3bn.

In October, total customer deposits at Ukrainian banks increased by 1.1% m-o-m and 15% y-o-y in the hryvnia segment and rose by 2.0% m-o-m and 14% y-o-y in the F/X segment. Outstanding UAH loans inched up by 0.5% m-o-m and 0.3% y-o-y, with F/X loans +0.7% m-o-m and -10.2% y-o-y.

LSE-listed MHP, Ukraine’s largest poultry producer, reported 3Q19 sales of $560m (+27% y-o-y), EBITDA of $109m (+10%), EBITDA before IFRS 16 effect of $85m (-14% y-o-y), and net profit of $104m (vs. $49m loss in 3Q18). The results yielded EBITDA and net margins of 19.4% and 18.6%, respectively (-3.0pp and +29.6pp y-o-y). Quarterly export sales totaled $317m or 57% of total revenue (vs. $275m or 62% of sales in 3Q18).

DTEK announced it has finalized the restructuring of its bank debt, which envisions conversion of part of the debt into notes and restructuring of the remainder.

WSE-listed dairy producer Milkiland reported 3Q19 net sales of $34m (-10% y-o-y), EBITDA of $0.2m (-86%) and net loss of $4.6m (vs. $13m loss in 3Q18), booking an EBITDA margin of 0.4% (-2.5pp y-o-y).

Ukrainian equities continued to trade lower, with the KP-Dragon losing 1.6% w-o-w on poor quarterly results from agricultural companies (see below). The local index dipped by 0.6% w-o-w but was up 0.6% in USD terms thanks to the hryvnia’s continuing appreciation.