Astarta Holding PLC

growth in the revenues on account of two business segments, sugar production and cattle farming. Although the soft commodity prices were going down this year, we still see a quite respectable EBITDA margin and net profit margin. Looking at our balance sheet, it remains very conservative with net debt to EBITDA below one. And we continue to focus on our operating cash flows, which totaled 116 million euros. And that was also a law on our increased investments. In the first half of this year, the key capex was spent in agricultural and sugar production business segments. Agriculture, the results were affected by lower soft commodity prices and adverse weather conditions, which not only affected spring crops, but also continued to play out for our late crops. We have already reported our yields for winter crops such as wheat and rapeseeds. We are in the process of sowing for the next season, but corn, soybeans, and sugar beets remain a work in progress. The weather is extremely dry at the end of summer, and such crops as sugar beet and corn, more certainty will come in the next months to come. According to the official focus of the local agricultural ministry, the harvest could be down between 15% and 30% depending on prevailing weather conditions in the autumn. But generally, Ukraine performed well on exports of its produce during last marketing season, and the logistics routes, which are currently available for Odessa, reached pre-war levels. And we expect the cost of exports in terms of transportation costs and transshipment costs to go down because of the lower harvest which is expected in Ukraine this year. The global grain prices continue to decline, but we saw some rebound for wheat prices in Ukraine. In sugar, we are starting our sugar production season as we speak. The first plant has been launched, and we are in the process of launching the remaining plants. Until the quarter to the EU markets was imposed in June this year, Ukrainian producers of sugar, including Astarta, were actively exporting to European market. And we managed to export nearly 120,000 tons, majority of which was placed in European southern countries such as Romania, Italy, etc., Profitability is lower on account of lower sugar prices globally, but it remains at good levels on a gross margin basis. This year, the acreage under sugar beet is slightly higher than last year, but the harvest focus are still uncertain. Various focus anticipate the range of the sugar production between 1.65, 1.75 million tons. Ukraine will have another opportunity to export to EU markets from 1st of January with a new quota above 100,000 tons. Until then, everyone, including ourselves, is focusing on exporting to other markets outside the European Union. Soybean processing is very resilient in terms of the margins at the growth and EBITDA level despite meal and oil prices going down compared to last year. Production volumes are steady and crush margin and hour margins are steady. There is a record area under soybeans in Ukraine this year at 2.6 million hectares. However, the weather conditions are not very favorable, and the expected harvest range varies between 4.6 to 6 million tons, depending on the source. Cattle farming is the segment which contributed to our revenues increase in the first half of this year. We continue to grow our herd and the yields per head count. In livestock sector, the prices remain quite strong for premium milk, which is a specialty of Astarta. The company is the largest producer of raw milk in so-called industrial production segment of the market. The smaller farmers continue to reduce production of the headcount, but this creates an opportunity for the bigger players, such as a starter, to increase production and the margin, which can be seen here. in our first six months P&L. This remains the main update. There are a few other updates in the appendices of our presentation, but in terms of interim results, while we are in the middle of autumn harvesting, these are the main developments. So we would like to go into the Q&A session now. The first question, how much of export-oriented deals were contracted for sugar for second half 24? We will not give the precise number, but these are tens of thousands of tons of sugar. at the pace which is similar to the last marketing year. But of course, the biggest part during the last marketing year was the EU market. Now we are focusing on minor markets. Next question. Considering the company's very strong financial position, does the company intend to pay in advance on the dividend?

Yes.

I would like to – well, we – I'm just – received the remarks from our CEO. We are focusing on stability of our operations, and we also strive to stable and predictable dividend policy, which is still in place.