Milkiland reduces net profit 6.4% in H1
KYIV. Aug 24 (Interfax) - Milkiland, a milk group with assets in Ukraine and Russia, posted 6.258 million euro in net profit for January-June 2012, down 6.4% year-on-year, the company said in its financial reporting.
The report said that consolidated sales revenue increased by 5.2% to 143.1 million euro while EBITDA decreased by 13.3% to 16.215 million euro. Operational profit decreased by 12.4% to 9.559 million euro.
Milkiland said that its operations in Ukraine were facilitated by the partial restart to subsidization of dairy farms. As a result, EBITDA in the second quarter increased by 4% year-on-year to 9.6 million euro
The company also said that the decrease in net profit for the first half had been driven by a threefold increase in profit taxes. Pretax profit increased by 4.6% to 7.344 million euro thanks to the increase in financial revenues.
The report also said: "The export ban imposed by Russian Federal Service on Customer's Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Surveillance (Rospotrebnadzor) for seven Ukrainian cheese exporters, including Milkiland's Mena cheese plant, partially limited the ability of Milkiland to sell cheese in Russia On the positive side, Rospotrbnadzor's restrictions triggered a 31% drop in raw milk prices in Ukraine from the beginning of 2012, ending up on average 3-10% lower year-on-year"
The company also said that the cheese ban caused a decrease in the share for cheese and butter in total revenue from 53% in the first half of 2011 to 51% while whole-milk products' share increased from 39% to 41% (in absolute terms, sales growth for these product groups came to 1% 12% respectively).
The company's strategic plans and initiatives for the second half of 2012 include boosting total head of cattle and milk yield in order to increase the share of house cheese production. The company also plans to build modern farms set for launch at the start of 2013 and continued support to milk co-operatives in order to boost their share in cheese production to over 20%.
Milkiland plans to continue the modernization of the Ostankino Dairy Plant in Russia and the Mazowiecka Spoldzielnia Mleczarska Ostrowia Cheese factory in Poland (acquired in July) so that production of hard pressed cheese commences at the start of 2013. The group plans to start selling cream and cheese spreads in Poland, as well as receive permission in Russia and Ukraine for the delivery of Ostrowia's products.
The company also said that it is still studying the option of acquiring attractive facilities in Ukraine, Russia and neighboring countries.
Milkiland includes ten processing plants in Ukraine, a Cheese factory in Poland and the Ostankino Dairy Plant in Russia. The company has total capacity to process more than 1.1 million tonnes of milk annually.