Agroton (AGT PW) reported a 62% yoy increase in sales revenues in 1Q12 to USD 20.5 mln, and 2.5x growth in profit to USD 17.6 mln. In addition, the company reported a decrease of outstanding receivables from two clients (which served as a basis for its auditors’ qualified opinion) from USD 43.8 mln at the end of end-March 2012 to USD 30.1 mln as of end-May.
Alexander Paraschiy: The outstanding receivables issue served as one of the reasons behind S&P’s recent downgrade of Agroton’s credit rating, so progress in their recovery seems to be the most important message from the 1Q12 report. The company earlier expressed assurance it would recover the receivables in full by end-1H12, while progress seems not as good as the company expected. It has USD 30.1 mln left to recover in June 2012 alone, which is far above the amounts recovered in January-March (USD 1.1 mln), April (USD 2.7 mln) or May (USD 11.0 mln).