The founder of UFuture, Vasyl Khmelnytsky, refutes his involvement in managing and investing in Crimean assets after the annexation of the peninsula, the group said in a statement. “We refute information about the alleged involvement of Vasyl Khmelnytsky in managing and investing in Crimean assets after the annexation of the peninsula by Russia … After Russia had annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, Vasyl Khmelnytsky did not invest in the development of business and/or infrastructure in the temporarily occupied territory, and did not manage the assets, which partially belonged to him at that time,” the company said.
Commenting on a publication entitled “Simferopol’s developer, IT leader in Kyiv. Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky and his assets in Crimea” by the Current Time edition and the Municipal Scanner project, UFuture emphasized that the information in the article was untrue.
“We were not ready to simply give our liquid assets to third parties. The negotiation and sale process took a considerable time due to understandable risks. In 2018, we sold all the corporate rights of our European companies, which, in turn, owned corporate rights or provided significant impact on the assets located in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, in Crimea. We did not make any investments that would violate the sanctions regime or the current legislation of Ukraine,” Khmelnytsky said.
The businessman added that the facilities in question are very large in terms of investment, and their sale was associated with significant risks.
“It is not easy to find buyers for such facilities, and the sale process itself took a long time. But the decision to sell the assets was made immediately after the annexation of Crimea,” he said.
UFuture is a holding company of Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky, which combines his business and social projects. It has a diversified portfolio of assets in real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and IT. The value of UFuture’s assets is estimated at $550 million. The total capitalization of the businesses in which it invested exceeds $1 billion.
The cost of the launch of 4G mobile communication in Kyiv’s subway by three leading mobile communication operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell is estimated at $20 million, Kyivstar President Alexander Komarov has said. “In the first quarter of 2020, we will launch the first stations if everything moves as it is now,” he told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.
Kyivstar Chief Marketing Officer Pavel Daniman said that the project is equally funded by all three operators.
Komarov has connected great progress in the implementation of this project recently with the appointment of Maksym Bakhmatov as adviser to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
According to the president of Kyivstar, access to the municipal infrastructure remains a ‘narrow neck:’ for the project to start on schedule, the Kyiv Council still needs to approve telecom access tariffs.
Daniman said that the implementation of 2G and 4G communications will be carried out from the outer stations, as this is due to technology, and covering all stations will require some time due to the ability to work only a few hours at night.
The volume of construction work in Ukraine in November 2019 increased by 18.9% compared to November 2018, while in October 2019 compared to October 2018 this figure rose by 14.9%. According to the State Statistics Service, the volume of construction work in November increased by 3.9% compared to the previous month (according to seasonally adjusted data, it fell by 1.1%), while compared to September 2019 this figure decreased by 6.7%.
According to the State Statistics Service, in November 2019 from November 2018 the volume of work decreased in residential construction, and increased in non-residential and engineering construction. According to uncorrected data, the growth in non-residential construction amounted to 22.8%, engineering some 24.1%. The decrease in the volume of work in residential construction amounted to 7.5%.
In addition, in November the volume of construction work in construction of residential buildings compared to October decreased by 12.8%, while in the non-residential construction increased by 7.4%, and in construction of engineering structures by 7.1%.
In January-November 2019 compared with January-November 2018, a drop in the volume of construction work was recorded in three regions of Ukraine, in particular, in Ivano-Frankivsk (by 1%, to UAH 2.763 billion), Cherkasy (5.6%, to UAH 1.655 billion), and Zaporizhia (5.2%, to UAH 3.245 billion).
The largest growth in the volume of construction work over the 11 months was recorded in Vinnytsia (two times, to UAH 9.189 billion), Chernihiv (1.5 times, to UAH 1.589 billion), and Kherson (1.4 times, to UAH 1.566 billion) regions.
In Kyiv, the volume of construction work for the 11 months grew by 26.5% and amounted to UAH 35.55 billion.
The data are given excluding the occupied territory of Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Oschadbank (Kyiv) plans to reduce the number of branches from 2,400 to 1,800-2,000 next year and update the remaining ones as part of the continued optimization of the network of branches of the financial institution. “We now have 2,400 branches. According to the plan, about 1,800-2,000 should remain. At the same time, we emphasize that all financial services will be available to customers throughout Ukraine,” Apine Baiba, the head of the supervisory board of Oschadbank, said in an interview with FinClub.
According to her, Oschadbank has already begun optimizing the network by updating more than 650 branches. At the same time, according to the old model, about 1,800 branches are still operating.
“Next year we need to make a choice: reformat them to a new business model or reduce them. And we cannot delay this process, because it affects the bank’s performance,” she said.
She clarified that the financial institution’s specialists are also working on transferring services from the branches to an online mode.
Oschadbank was founded in 1991. Its sole owner is the state.
Oschadbank ranked second among 76 banks operating in the country on October 1, 2019 in terms of total assets (UAH 274.609 billion), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2019/2020 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of December 23, 2019 had exported 29.35 million tonnes of grain and leguminous plants, which is 35% more than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, to date the country has exported 14.5 million tonnes of wheat, 10.9 million tonnes of corn, and 3.7 million tonnes of barley.
As of December 23 of this year, 182,400 tonnes of flour were also exported.
As reported, Ukraine in the 2018/2019 MY exported a record 50.4 million tonnes of grain, legumes and flour, which is 23% more than in the previous MY.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in November raised its forecast for grain exports for the 2019/2020 MY by 500,000 tonnes compared with the October forecast, to 54.94 million tonnes.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on December 20 introduced into circulation the upgraded 50-hryvnia bills, as well as 5-hryvnia coins that will gradually replace the respective banknotes, the NBU has reported on its website.
According to the report, first of all, the NBU intends to introduce 5 million of 50–hryvnia banknotes and 5-hryvnia coins. The first batch of means of payment had already been distributed to NBU regional offices.
The NBU has catered to the needs of the public, since customers will not be required to exchange the current 5- and 50-hryvnia bills for new coins and banknotes. No time limits will be imposed on the simultaneous use of new and previous banknotes in payments.
The 5- and 50-hryvnia banknotes of the previous design will be gradually replaced with coins and new banknotes as they wear out. The number of upgraded bills and coins will gradually increase in circulation, depending on the economy’s needs, the bank said.
The NBU said that the introduction of into circulation the upgraded 50-hryvnia bills and 5-hryvnia coins is a part of optimizing and upgrading the banknote and coin series of hryvnia.
Since 2014, the NBU has been upgrading the hryvnia and streamlining cash settlements. Optimization of the banknote and coin series of hryvnia is expected to be completed in 2020 after 200-hryvnia banknotes are introduced into circulation alongside 10-hryvnia coins. Due to comprehensive changes, eventually, the hryvnia series will be optimized to 12 denominations. The new denomination series will have six coins (10 and 50 kopiikas, and 1, 2, 5, and 10 hryvnias) and six banknote denominations (20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 hryvnias).
