OREANDA-NEWS. September 10, 2010. Astarta Holding (WSE: AST PW) reached an asset management agreement to operate Volochynsky sugar plant (Khmelnitsky region, Ukraine) with a total processing capacity of 3,400 mt sugar beets per day and negotiated an option to acquire the complex in the future, according to a company announcement yesterday. The company operated the Volochynky refinery in 2008, but the facility was idle last year.

Concorde Capital: The opportunity to operate the Volochynsky refinery will increase Astarta’s sugar beet processing capacities by 12.6% to 30,400 mt per day and thus should favor more efficient capacity utilization of Astarta’s assets in the region. According to our estimates, the company’s Nakevychi sugar plant, located in Khmelnitsky region operated at close to 70% load in 2009, producing ~35 ths mt of sugar (~16% of Astarta’s total output last year). Given the company’s plans to increase sugar output this season, which we estimate to grow 32% y-o-y to 296,000 mt, the opportunity to double Astarta’s capacities should allow the company to retain a comfortable load of 50-60% on both facilities in 2010. At the same time, we see a high likelihood that the refinery will be acquired by Astarta as soon as 2011-12, since our forecasted growth in the company’s sugar output by a 12% CAGR in 2010-14F suggests Astarta could exceed its current processing capacities already in 2013F.