Astarta, Ukraine's biggest sugar producer, is considering a share buyback if its shares do not bounce off current levels, its top executive told Reuters on Thursday. The Warsaw-listed stock has fallen 12 percent this year and has been trading near or below the 80 zloty mark since early March, when the head of the company's supervisory board sold 6 percent of the stock.
"We believe the company is undervalued at current levels," Chief Executive Viktor Ivanchyk said in an interview. "If the share price remains at such a low level, the shareholders and management might consider a buy back." Ivanchyk said neither he nor Valery Korotkov, the head of the supervisory board, had any immediate plans to sell further shares. They own 37 percent and 26 percent respectively.
Astarta shares rose 2.7 percent by 1457 GMT, to value the company at around $725 million. The group expects that growing production and food prices will lift sales this year at a similar pace to 2010, when they surged 70 percent to 219 million euros, Ivanchyk said. Its net margin should not be below last year's 36 percent, he added. More than half of Astarta's sales come from sugar production, which it expects to rise to 350,000 tonnes from 200,000 last year.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.