Astarta's bitter sweet IPO expected later this year

Astarta has five sugar plants and 20 agricultural holdings in Ukraine for which it wants to raise investment funds. "Our aim is to consolidate the fragmented but very promising sugar market in Ukraine," declared Astarta's president Victor Ivanchik. The company currently has a 3% stake of the Ukrainian sugar market and wants to increase the figure to 10% by 2010. In order to do so, Astarta wants to modernize its existing plants, take over new ones and increase the area of sugar beet crops. "We have analyzed various options to finance the planned investments. Finally we chose the Warsaw bourse," stated Ivanchik. The offer is to be carried out later this year. According to DM Millennium analyst Piotr Her, the investment in Astarta shares is connected with various risks. He stated that Astarta's public offer in Poland would require higher discounts than in the case of domestic entities, which should compensate the higher risk to investors. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 6) E.B.