Daily monitor

MCB Agricole [4GW1 GR, U/R] has signed a USD 5.8 mln forward contract to sell 17 thsd tonnes of rapeseed, the shipment of which is scheduled for August-September 2010. The price set is USD 340 per tonne, CPT. The Company has received an advance payment of USD 2.9 mln, which will be used for its spring sowing campaign.

Kryukiv Railcar [KVBZ UZ, BUY], a leading Ukrainian railcar producer, posted a net income of USD 8.8 mln in 2009 (UAH 71.5 mln). The recorded amount is 5.6 times less than achieved in 2008.

Landkom International PLC [LKI LN, U/R], a Ukrainian producer of agricultural commodities, announced its results for 10M2009ending 31 October 2009. The Company’s net revenues for that period were USD 14.6 mln vs. just USD 10.6 mln for the whole year in 2008.

According to Metal-courier, Ukraine’s price for coke in March should rise another 10% MoM. The main reason for this is the raw materials deficiency, due to scheduled repairs for 40-50% of the production capacities some of the country’s key coal making companies; namely, the Chervonolymanska Mine and Zasadko Mine.

AvtoKrAZ [KRZ UZ, N/R], a Ukrainian producer of trucks, posted a net income of USD 3.9 mln (UAH 30.9) in 2009, implying a 8.1% decline YoY.

On February 25, 2010, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine granted Kernel Holding S.A. [KER PW, BUY] approval for the acquisition of Allseeds. This will allow the Holding to exercise the option agreements signed by the Company earlier and concentrate a 93.4% stake in Allseeds.

The State Statistics Committee released some initial official data on 2009 GDP. In nominal terms, it totalled UAH 913 bln, which is down 4% compared to UAH 950 bln in 2008. In USD terms, nominal GDP totalled USD 114 bln, which is a 37% contraction compared to USD 180 bln in 2008. GDP per capita in 2009 totalled USD 2.5 thsd.

According to Ukrainian News, in January 2009, ferroalloys exports from Ukraine increased by 10.3% to 97.4 thsd tonnes.

In January 2010, Bohdan Motors [LUAZ UZ, U/R] produced only 107 cars. This figure implies a remarkable drop of 86.6% MoM and 91.2% YoY.

According to the Managing Director of Arcelor Mittal Kryvyi Rih, Jean Rue, the Company plans to invest up to USD 200 mln in the modernization of production capacities and the fulfillment of its investment obligations.