Ukraine’s HarvEast to Post First Profit This Year, CEO Says

HarvEast, a Ukrainian agricultural company founded by Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky, will post its first profit this year, according to Chief Executive Officer Simon Cherniavsky.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will climb to at least 100 million hryvnia ($12.5 million) in 2012 from 49 million hryvnia a year earlier, Cherniavsky told reporters in Kiev today.

The company’s main products are grain and milk. Grain and oilseed production will probably rise to more than 465,000 tons from 410,000 tons last year, said Dmytro Skornyakov, first deputy chief executive officer of HarvEast.

The company will export around 30 percent of its grain harvest, said Cherniavsky. He added that 30,000 tons of feed wheat and barley were exported from January through March.

HarvEast plans to invest 160 million hryvnia in machinery this year to boost grain production and profitability, Cherniavsky said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at kchoursina@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net