IMC to expand sowing area 1.5x yoy in 2013

Industrial Milk Company (IMC PW) plans to increase its sowing area 48% yoy to about 110,000 ha, Interfax reported on March 27, citing a top company manager. In particular, IMC is going to increase the planting of its flagship crop, corn, by 73% yoy to 70,000 ha, and sunflower by 33% to 24,000 ha. On top of that, the company planted 10,500 ha with winter crops (mainly wheat), up 35% yoy.

Alexander Paraschiy: The company’s ambitious growth in its sowing area is of little surprise, given that it more than doubled its land bank a year ago. We believe the company will post triple-digit growth in its 2013 revenue on both sowing area expansion and better crop yields (recall, last year’s yields suffered from a severe drought). We see Industrial Milk as among the top Ukrainia nstock picks, given the company’s solid track record in delivering on its growth plans.