Raiffeisen Bank Aval (Kyiv) does not plan to reduce office space in 2020, said Alexander Pisaruk, Board Chairman of the bank Oleksandr Pysaruk has said.
“In the medium term, I see an opportunity to reduce office space for a number of reasons, but probably not this year,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Pysaruk, the reduction in office space will depend on the pace of the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), morbidity, and also the acceleration of the digitalization trend.
At the same time, the board chairman spoke about the bank’s plans for redevelopment of offices in accordance with the social distancing rules during lockdown.
“As for the office space, it needs to be redesigned. The combination of presence of a smaller number of employees in the office with larger distances between workstations requires a systematic review of approaches to managing office real estate, including the interior, the number and quality of sites,” Pysaruk said.
Ukraine in January-June 2020 reduced electricity exports by 12.3% (by 374.6 million kWh) compared to the same period in 2019, to 2.676 billion kWh, according to data from Ukrenergo. According to Interfax-Ukraine’s calculations, the supply of electricity from the energy island of Burshtyn TPP to Hungary, Slovakia and Romania decreased by 12.9% (by 263.2 million kWh), to 1.772 billion kWh.
Electricity supplies to Poland increased by 17.5% (by 115.2 million kWh), to 773.9 million kWh.
Electricity supplies to Moldova amounted to 130.3 million kWh, which is 63.5% (226.6 million kWh) less than in January-June 2019.
Ukrainian electricity was not exported to Belarus and Russia.
In June 2020, exports fell by 3.3 times compared with the same month last year (by 235.3 million kWh), to 102.3 million kWh.
At the same time, Ukraine for the six months imported 1.757 billion kWh of electricity, including 1.034 billion kWh supplied from Slovakia, 434.2 million kWh from Hungary, 152.3 million kWh from Belarus, 82.4 million kWh from Romania, and 53.4 million kWh from Russia.
In June, imports fell to a minimum of 18.9 million kWh, which is 1.8 times less than in May 2020, 8 times less than in April, 23.4 times less than in March, almost 30 times less than in February and January.
State-controlled PrivatBank in January-May continued to top the list of the most profitable Ukrainian banks, declaring UAH 19.62 billion of net profit, while state-owned Ukreximbank recorded the largest loss, as a month earlier, of UAH 1.59 billion.According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Oschadbank (UAH 3.56 billion) ranked second in the list of the most profitable banks, Raiffeisen Bank Aval (UAH 1.7 billion) ranked third. FUIB is in the fourth position (UAH 1.13 billion), and Citibank (UAH 759.66 million) is fifth.
According to the central bank, in January-May 2020, Bank Credit Dnipro ranked second (UAH 245.89 million) in terms of losses, Prominvestbank (PIB, UAH 126 million) ranked third, Pravex-Bank (UAH 63.72 million) ranked fourth and BTA Bank (UAH 39.38 million) was fifth.
In general, in the five months of 2020, the net profit of banks increased by 23.6%, to UAH 28.96 billion from the corresponding figure a year earlier (UAH 23.43 billion).
Some 59 of 75 banks operating in Ukraine were profitable during this period, according to NBU data.
According to the statistics of the National Bank, in terms of total assets, PrivatBank (UAH 590.59 billion) ranked first for the indicated period, Oschadbank (UAH 310.78 billion) ranked second, Ukreximbank (UAH 220.71 billion) ranked third, Ukrgasbank (UAH 156.43 billion) ranked fourth, while Raiffeisen Bank Aval (UAH 100.9 billion) ranked fifth.
Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Ihor Petrashko advocates for reducing the number of ministries, while noting that the discussion on dividing his ministry into agrarian and economic departments continues.
“Personally, I am not a supporter of constant changes. If there is a need for them, it is needed to make them gradually. There are periods of bureaucratic instability within some similar changes. However, again, there is a statement by the president and a discussion in parliament. What format will be agreed upon? The main thing is efficiency and results,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.”I support reducing the number of ministries,” the minister said.
According to him, the discussion regarding the post of deputy prime minister for industry or a separate body in this area has also not been completed.
“There is still the discussion about new formats and posts, there are different statements. It is important to find the right format in this case,” Petrashko said.
The Ukrainian Golf Federation held the Open Team Championship. It is an annual competition among golfers, which unites in groups of 2,3 or 4 people and together they fight for the right to be the winners.
This year the competition was held from 3 to 5 July at the Kozyn Golf Club. 96 golfers took part in the Championship, which was a record number of Ukrainian athletes.
Among the women’s teams, Superior Ladies took the first place (Elvira Rastvortseva, Maria Fedorovich, Daria Gorokhovskaya). Among men`s teams won – HClub Young Killers (Mikhail Golod, Oleg Golod, Artem Sokolov).
“I hope that setting records will become our tradition in golf. Federation sports tournaments are becoming increasingly popular among golfers. We are constantly working to increase the number of golfers in Ukraine: we actively support juniors, we have created a Children’s and Youth Golf Sports School. We understand what interesting outdoor sport it is and we want at least a thousand golfers to join the game by the end of the year, and up to 10,000 people will play golf in 3-5 years,” said Vitaliy Khomutynnik, President of the Ukrainian Golf Federation, congratulating the winners.
Quarantine has made its adjustments to the global sports industry. Due to COVID-19, sports, moreover, competitions have been restricted. But golf is one of those sports where the game is played outdoors and the distance between the athletes is maintained.
This year, the Ukrainian Golf Federation has introduced a number of rules and made obvious changes in various areas of golf: amateur, professional, women’s, children’s, junior and golf for people with disabilities. Number of golfers this year has been doubled.
Interfax-Ukraine – information partner of the championship
Changes to the registration of vehicles, initiated by the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, which, in particular, prohibit the registration of cars with salvage titles imported from abroad, will create problems for companies involved in this business, will make it impossible for Ukrainians to buy such cars with a clear history at reasonable prices and also entail losses of the national budget in the amount of at least $327 million, according to Columb Trade company.
“Now more than 90% of cars with salvage titles come to Ukraine with such documents (marked for recycling), but in fact they have minor damage (lighting, bumpers, wings) and after restoration pass certification in authorized bodies. The proposed changes may replace the functionality of certification bodies, while citizens are deprived of the opportunity to purchase a car with a clear history of origin,” Roman Voloshin, a lawyer of the company, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
He emphasized that in general the draft resolution, posted on the website of the Interior Ministry for discussion, contains many positive norms that will simplify the process of registration (re-registration of a car), however, two provisions on the prohibition of registration of cars with salvage titles, as well as on the need for mandatory translation of accompanying documents to the official language with an apostille will create chaos in the market, will entail additional costs for buyers and budget losses.
“Only the requirement of compulsory apostille, according to our calculations, will lead to additional costs for buyers of $200-300,” Voloshin said.
According to the calculations cited by Columb Trade co-founder Volodymyr Kovel, about 36,800 people who want to buy a car from abroad can suffer from such innovations (registration ban).
“The transit of a car from the United States takes three months, and the average monthly supply is 10,000 cars. Now 30,000 cars are in transit. Even minor repairs, taking into account certification and registration, take about a month. Respectively, there will be 40,000 such cars, not yet registered, of which 92% with the status of to be recycled, that is, 36,800 cars,” Kovel said.
He considers it incorrect to take into account the status of recycling, which the United States accept for itself, since there it is done by the method of financial accounting of the residual value of a car, while the damage can be minor and in Ukraine they can be repaired for $2,500-3,000.
Kovel stressed that these restrictions will not force Ukrainians to refuse buying cars from abroad, and they will be forced to buy the same cars from the United States, for example, in Georgia or Latvia, where this business has long been established, but then they will serve the orders of Ukrainians and get receipts from customs clearance and other fees going to the budget of their countries. As a result, the car will cost a Ukrainian almost $3,000 more, taking into account the extension of the logistics chain, the need to bring cars from neighboring countries and other expenses.
