Ukrainian shopping and entertainment centers for two weeks of January lockdown will not receive UAH 1.5-2 billion of lease payments, while the loss of their tenants’ turnover will amount to UAH 10-12 billion.
These data were announced by Head of the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers, Chief Operation Officer of Budhouse Group Maksym Havriushyn.
“January for most of the tenants of the shopping centers has always been far from the most profitable month. According to our calculations, tenants of the shopping centers as a whole will lose UAH 10-12 billion in turnover in the two weeks of January quarantine. Shopping centers will lose about UAH 1.5-2 billion of rental income,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Havriushyn, if the lockdown had been introduced at the end of December, the losses would have been doubled.
During the January lockdown, as well as during the spring one in 2020, the shopping and entertainment centers in Ukraine will not charge lease payments for their tenants, whose work is prohibited by a government resolution, the head of council said.
“The market has already gained experience of working in such conditions. The approach will remain the same as during the spring quarantine of 2020. Only maintenance fees will remain. For tenants who will continue to work, conditions will be determined on an individual basis,” Havriushyn said.
PrJSC Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) intends to lease the logistics center Arctic (Arktyka) in the village Sofiyevska Borschahivka near Kyiv from Dragon Capital.
As follows from the agenda of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the issue of granting permission for the lease is planned to be considered on January 11.
MHP is the largest poultry producer in Ukraine. It is also engaged in production of grain, sunflower oil, meat. MHP supplies the European market with chilled half-carcasses of chickens, which are processed, in particular at its factories in the Netherlands and Slovakia. In February 2019, MHP completed the acquisition of the Slovenian company Perutnina Ptuj.
In addition, at the end of 2020, the MHP supervisory board made a decision to establish a branch named MHP Logistics.
The founder and majority shareholder of MHP is Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosiuk.
The Agency for Defense Technologies is planned to be created in 2021 in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Urusky said during a visit to the League of Defense Enterprises of Ukraine association of manufacturers of weapons and military equipment on Wednesday.
According to the minister, such an agency will contribute to the creation of advanced models of armed military equipment.
In addition, according to the press service of the Ministry for Strategic Industries, the Ministry of Strategic Industry in the future will merge with the League of Defense Enterprises of Ukraine in order to create the necessary conditions for both state and private companies.
At the moment, Urusky emphasized, the implementation of the law of Ukraine “On public defense procurement” is under the special control of the government. It is planned that in January it will be possible to accept all the necessary documents for it to work. The processing of the Defense Industry Development Strategy has already been completed, the press service of the Ministry for Strategic Industries reported.
The board of directors of Ferrexpo on January 5 announced special interim dividends of $0.132 per share, bringing the total amount of dividends already declared for the 2020 fiscal year (FY) to $0.33, from $0.198 in the 2019 fiscal year.
“The special interim dividend announced today reflects the strong operational and financial performance of the group in 2020, and strong balance sheet,” the company said in a statement on the stock exchange.
“To date, total dividends declared in respect of the 2020 financial year amount to 33 U.S. cents (FY2019: 19.8 cents). The board of Ferrexpo will consider the final dividend for the 2020 financial year ahead of the group’s full year results announcement on March 17, 2021,” the report says.
“The special interim dividend announced today will be paid on January 28, 2021 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on January 15, 2021. It will be paid in UK Pounds Sterling, with an election to receive in U.S. Dollars,” it stated.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine. In the first half of 2020, Ferrexpo received $249.91 million in net profit, which is 7.6% less than in the first half of 2019, and its revenue decreased by 1.4%, to $775.83 million with an increase in production and sales of pellets by 5% and 22% respectively.
The seaports of Ukraine in 2020 handled 158.86 million tonnes of cargo, which is almost equal to the figure for 2019, the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure reported, citing Minister Vladyslav Krykliy.
“Despite the pandemic and the crisis in 2020, the seaports of Ukraine continued to operate and made great efforts to maintain a sufficient level of transshipment. The result of this work is almost 160 million tonnes of cargo handled per year, which practically reaches the pre-crisis level last year. 2020 was the year of signing first concession agreements in the maritime industry in the ports of Olvia and Kherson with an investment of UAH 3.7 billion for their further modernization and development. And we continue to work on new concessions in the region in 2021,” he said.
The ministry notes that over the year, the transshipment of exported cargo increased to 122.84 million tonnes (1.5% more), cabotage cargo to 2.37 million tonnes (10.7% more). At the same time, negative dynamics of import and transit cargo was recorded.
Most of all the ports handled grain and ore with 48 million tonnes and 44.22 million tonnes, respectively. At the same time, the transshipment of ore over the year increased by 18.5%, ferrous metals by 8.6%, and oil by 2.2 times. Transshipment of containers reached 1.05 million TEU and exceeded the previous year’s figure by 4.1%.
As reported, the seaports of Ukraine handled 160 million tonnes of cargo in 2019, which is 18.4% more compared to 2018.
Transit of natural gas through the gas transmission system (GTS) of Ukraine in 2020 amounted to 55.8 billion cubic meters, which is 37.7% less than in 2019 (89.6 billion cubic meters).
According to the report of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU), 51.9 billion cubic meters of gas have been supplied in the western direction (Slovakia – 38.5 billion cubic meters, Hungary – 9.6 billion cubic meters, Poland – 3.8 billion cubic meters), which is 32% less than in 2019, in the south direction – 3.9 billion cubic meters (Moldova – 3 billion cubic meters, Romania – 900 million cubic meters), which is 70% less than last year in this direction.
“The key factors in reducing transit volumes to Europe are the launch of new gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine [the Turkish Stream], as well as a decrease in gas demand in the EU and significant gas reserves in European UGS facilities,” the statement says.
The company said that the agreement with Gazprom provides for booking 65 billion cubic meters in 2020. Thus, last year’s transit was 14% less (by 9.2 billion cubic meters) than provided for in the contract. At the same time, Gazprom paid in full for the booked 65 billion cubic meters of transit capacity.
The average daily transit volume for the year was 153 million cubic meters with the booked 178 million cubic meters. At the same time, in December, due to additional transit capacities ordered by Gazprom, it amounted to 183 million cubic meters.
In addition, gas transportation from Europe to Ukraine in 2020 amounted to 15.9 billion cubic meters, which is 12% more than in 2019 (14.2 billion cubic meters). In particular, Slovakia last year delivered 10.2 billion cubic meters of gas (up by 11% from 2019), Hungary – 4.2 billion cubic meters (14% more), Poland – 1.5 billion cubic meters (3% more).
