SkyUp Airlines (Kyiv) on November 30, 2020 will operate a nonscheduled flight on the Baku (Azerbaijan) – Kyiv route.
The company’s press service said on Wednesday, the cost of tickets starts at UAH 9,067.
SkyUp said that according to the latest update of the list of countries in the “red” and “green” zones of the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, which was announced by the Health Ministry of Ukraine on November 6, 2020, Azerbaijan remains in the “green” zone.
After entering Ukraine from Azerbaijan, people do not need to self-isolate or take a PCR test. However, passengers need to have an insurance policy, which provides for treatment for COVID-19.
PrJSC Philip Morris Ukraine, a large tobacco producer, proposes to replace a 320% tax increase on tobacco products for electric heating, which should come into force on January 1, 2021, with an annual increase of 50% during 2022-2025 or 200% in 2021 and 20% in subsequent years.
According to the published letter of Philip Morris Ukraine CEO Konstantinos Salvaras to the president of Ukraine, a gradual increase in the excise tax on tobacco products for electric heating by 50% per year or by 200% in 2021 and by 20% in subsequent years will save the market from a total transition to the shadows and bring more revenues to the state budget than a sharp increase in the excise tax rate by 320%.
“We urge the government to move away from the practice of unpredictable and unstable tax policy, which affects both the attitude of investors and the economy of the country. Tax increases should be gradual, not fourfold,” the Philip Morris letter says.
The company reported that the government and academia share the vision of a gradual increase in the tax rate. Thus, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture supports the idea of increasing the rate on tobacco products for electric heating by 50% from January 1, 2021 and by 50% during 2022-2025, and a study conducted by the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine shows that a gradual increase in the excise tax on tobacco products for electric heating will provide additional UAH 18.7 million of revenues to the state budget compared to a sharp increase in the tax rate.
According to Philip Morris’ estimates, a sharp increase in excise taxes will lead to the loss of potential and real investments, state budget revenues, an increase in the level of smuggling, and a conflict with EU legislation.
NPC Ukrenergo needs to attract UAH 11.3 billion under government guarantees for paying to electricity producers from renewable energy sources (RES) and state-owned generating companies, acting Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko has said.
“The debt to be paid off to the green power companies is UAH 9 billion, and according to our estimates, in order to maintain parity, the volume of funds raised will amount to UAH 11.3 billion,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
At the same time, according to him, it is necessary to “repay debts in a balanced way”, which means their repayment both to RES producers and to state-owned generating companies involved in public service obligations (PSO).
He said that the bill No. 4119, which provides for Ukrenergo to receive government guarantees for loans to pay to the green power companies, is waiting for the president’s signing and will allow attracting the necessary loan.
“We are now on a schedule being realistic in terms of attracting loans,” Boiko said.
He also said that the current payments to RES producers will be provided, stressing that in August and September, the full payment to renewable energy generation has already been provided.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) on November 27, 2020 announced the holding of auctions for the privatization of Vyshniakivsky (Poltava region, alcoholic drinks production), Tkhorivsky (Kyiv region), Kobylovolotsky (Ternopil region) and Velykoliubynsky (Lviv region) distilleries of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt.
According to the press service of the State Property Fund, the online auction for the privatization of Vyshniakivsky distillery will take place on December 21, the starting price is UAH 9.88 million; Tkhorivsky distillery – December 22, the starting price is UAH 22.46 million, Kobylovolotsky distillery – December 23, the starting price is UAH 25.95 million, Velykoliubynsky distillery – December 24, the starting price is UAH 29.97 million.
As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on December 11, 2019 signed a law on abolishing state monopoly on alcohol production from July 1, 2020, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on December 3, 2019.
The debut auction for the privatization of the first object of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt, Nemyriv distillery (Vinnytsia region), was held on October 15. The plant was sold to LVN Limited LLC, the shareholders of Nemiroff for UAH 55.08 million, which is UAH 5 million higher than the starting price. The winning company was the only one to apply to participate in the auction.
On the whole, starting from October 15, eight Ukrspyrt’s plants have been successfully privatized at online auctions. Two auctions did not take place. As for the distilleries, they will be put up for re-bidding with a reduction in the starting price.
The SPF expects to attract about UAH 2 billion from the privatization of distilleries of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt and the concern Ukrspyrt.
Mobile network operator Kyivstar has launched 4G communication in the 900 MHz range in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where refarming of radio frequencies and reconfiguration of operator equipment have recently been completed.
“Thus, 4G in the 900 MHz band is already available in all regions of Ukraine. This is the completion of the first important stage of expanding the coverage of high-speed Internet in rural areas, which was launched in June 2020,” the operator’s press service said on Thursday.
Another 84,000 people living in 90 small towns or villages received access to 4G-network from Kyivstar in Donetsk and Luhansk regions today.
“The construction of 4G network in small villages is the most important tool to bridge the digital divide in Ukraine. To make this possible, Kyivstar voluntarily gave up part of its frequencies, which were then distributed among other operators to launch LTE in the 900 MHz band. High-speed Internet is starting to work today in small and remote villages, including those where only 50-100 people live,” President of Kyivstar Alexander Komarov said.
In general, high-speed mobile Internet from Kyivstar is already available in almost 14,000 cities, towns and villages, where 85% of the Ukrainian population lives.
According to the operator, half of these settlements were connected to 4G in 2020.
The company plans to provide at least 90% of the country’s population with high-speed mobile Internet by July 2022.
“The deployment of the national 4G network in rural areas was accelerated thanks to the use of the 900 MHz band, which has a larger coverage radius compared to the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands. This was preceded by two years of painstaking work with the participation of all mobile network operators, the regulator, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and other public bodies,” Kyivstar said.
Since the beginning of 2020, Kyivstar has invested UAH 4.3 billion in the construction of the network, increasing investments by 22% compared to last year, and in general, over the past five years, the company’s expenses, including on the development of 3G and 4G communication in Ukraine, exceeded UAH 28 billion.
The net consolidated loss of the Naftogaz group in January-September 2020 amounted to UAH 17.034 billion compared to a net profit of UAH 21.31 for the same period last year.
“For the nine months, reported loss was UAH 17.0 billion, compared with a profit of UAH 12.9 billion for the same period in 2019, excluding discontinued operations [gas transit transferred from January 1, 2020 to GTSOU], reflecting lower demand and gas prices,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
According to the report, in the third quarter of this year, Naftogaz’s net loss from continuing operations was UAH 5.49 billion, which is 61.8% more than in the third quarter of last year. The group said that if we exclude the profit from transit during this period in 2019, then the increase in loss will not be so significant – 14.6%.
“Operating cash flow for the quarter was UAH 0.5 billion, compared with a negative operating cash flow of UAH 12.6 billion in Q3 2019 (excluding discontinued operations). For the nine months in a challenging environment, operating cash flow was UAH 16.1 billion, almost in line with the operating cash flow of UAH 16.9 billion in the same period last year,” Naftogaz said.
The group said that after abolishment of the Public Service Obligations (PSO) on August 1, 2020, Ukrainian gas consumers can switch freely from gas suppliers and benefit from market-based pricing, whilst gas intermediaries pay for gas supplies. However, payments for deliveries made before 31 July 2020 and under the PSO remain outstanding which results in provisions for bad debts, UAH 3.7 billion in the nine months. “Provisions for bad debts will likely have again a negative impact on profitability in the next quarter,” Naftogaz said.
According to the report, the group expects to receive of compensation from the state in the amount of UAH 32.204 million in 2020 under a law on cross payments with Ukrnafta recently passed, and this could bring the group to profits at the end of the year.
The group reported that adjusted EBITDA in 9M 2020 amounted to “minus” UAH 1.2 billion versus UAH 26 billion in 9M 2019, while in the third quarter the situation was reversed: this year EBITDA was positive – UAH 0.5 billion versus minus UAH 2.8 billion a year ago.
Naftogaz said that the positive contribution of exploration and production to EBITDA in 9M 2020 amounted to UAH 16.3 billion versus UAH 34.5 billion in 9M 2019, while the negative contribution from commerce was UAH 16.3 billion and UAH 9.9 billion respectively.
“Exploration and production result reflected lower gas prices that were partially offset by lower subsoil royalties as compared to the nine months of 2019,” the group said.
The group recalled that 10.7 billion cubic meters were produced and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas were sold in 9M 2020.
In addition, Ukrnafta, in which Naftogaz owns 51%, increased the negative result of this year by UAH 2.2 billion, while last year its contribution was positive – UAH 1 billion. Ukrnafta’s result were negatively impacted by lower gas selling prices as well as lower volumes of crude oil sold, according to the report.
At the same time, the group managed to increase EBITDA from natural gas storage to UAH 3.8 billion from UAH 0.8 billion and to maintain a positive contribution of EBITDA from transportation, oil refining and sales of oil products – UAH 1.3 billion versus UAH 1.9 billion in 9M 2019.
“Gas storage reflected higher revenues from pumping and storage services due an increased demand. Oil midstream and downstream was primarily attributable to lower selling prices for petroleum products which were not wholly offset by attributable cost savings over the period,” the group said.
The group’s revenue in 9M 2020 fell compared to 9M 2019 by 6.2%, to UAH 103.17 billion, but in the third quarter it grew by 64%, to UAH 31.77 billion.
“Capital expenditure in the first three quarters of 2020 was UAH 11.8 billion, below the full-year target of UAH 20 billion. Free cash flow was resilient at UAH 4.1 billion,” Naftogaz said.
The group said that in the third quarter of this year capital expenditures totaled UAH 4 billion versus UAH 6.3 billion a year ago.
Its net debt fell from UAH 42.6 billion at the end of 2019 to UAH 19.7 billion at the end of the third quarter, and cash and cash equivalents fell from UAH 77.59 billion to UAH 45.81 billion.
In October-November 2020, the group paid off loans for the amount of UAH 3.36 billion and borrowed UAH 2.67 billion from banks.
Naftogaz Ukrainy unites the largest oil and gas companies in the country. The group is a monopolist in the storage of natural gas in underground storage facilities and the transportation of oil by pipeline throughout the country.
