OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2010. Astarta Holding <AST PW HOLD> has announced its plans to increase the land bank by 14%, y/y to 200 thousand ha in 2010. Also, the Company plans to complete the building of two storage capacities of around 30kt each in Kharkiv and Vinnytsia region by 2011.

We see the news to be moderately positive for Astarta shares, since the land bank expansion is needed for the harvest expansion of AST in 2010 (with sugar output up 42%). Still, as we have written before, the expected sugar price decline in Ukraine in 2010 will smooth the growth of the Company financials.