Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Madrid office real estate market: results of first half of 2025

Madrid in the first half of 2025 confirmed its status as one of the key business centers of Southern Europe, remaining an attractive market for investors and tenants. Despite high inflation in the eurozone and ongoing geopolitical risks, the city’s office real estate market shows moderate growth and maintains a high level of activity in the premium segment.

Prices and rental dynamics

The average rental rate for Class A offices in Madrid’s central business district (CBD) in June 2025 was €36-39 per sqm per month, 3-4% higher than in the same period last year. In areas outside the CBD, including the Atocha and Chamartin districts, rates are holding between €22-28 per sqm.

The rental growth is mainly due to the shortage of quality modern space and increased demand from international companies in the IT, consulting and finance sectors.

Sales market

The average purchase price of office properties in Madrid in the first half of 2025 was €4,200-4,800 per sqm in central areas. In suburban areas (Alcobendas, Las Rosas, San Sebastian de los Reyes), prices range from €2,200 to €2,800 per square meter.

Deals with investment funds and REITs remain a key driver: in the first half of the year, several large office building renovation projects entered the market, and the volume of investment in the sector is estimated at €1.6-1.8 billion, 12% more than in the same period in 2024.

Expert opinions

According to CBRE Spain analysts, companies are increasingly abandoning old premises in favor of offices with energy efficiency certification (BREEAM, LEED). The share of such areas in the structure of transactions reached 45%, indicating a growing interest in sustainable development.

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) notes that demand for co-working and flexible office solutions in Madrid has increased by 15% year-on-year. Startups and branches of international corporations that are expanding their presence in Spain are particularly active using this format.

Forecast

Office rental rates in Madrid are expected to continue their moderate growth of 2-3% in the second half of 2025, especially in the premium segment. Purchase prices, according to Knight Frank experts, will fluctuate within the current values, but investor interest will continue due to stable demand and limited supply of new space.

In the medium term, the Madrid market will remain a benchmark for investors in Southern Europe: the combination of high quality of life, developed infrastructure and a growing number of international companies makes it one of the most stable office markets in the region.

http://relocation.com.ua/office-real-estate-market-in-madrid-results-first-half-2025/

 

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Partner ecosystem accelerates large-scale cloud and AI implementations

The growing number of development partners and system integrators around cloud providers allows for faster launch of complex and large-scale projects in the Ukrainian market. This conclusion is given in his column for Interfax-Ukraine by Volodymyr Bjelov, Country Director of GigaCloud.

According to him, it is the “partner model” that helps to close the lack of expertise and speeds up the path from pilot project to commercial operation.

GigaCloud is a Ukrainian cloud provider (part of GigaGroup), founded in 2016. The company provides IaaS/PaaS services, virtual data centers, redundancy and continuity solutions (DR/BCP) and GPU clouds. The infrastructure is located in data centers in Ukraine and the EU (Kiev, Lviv, Warsaw) with TIER III/IV compliance; the provider has VMware Cloud Service Provider (Premier) status and is registered in CSA STAR Registry, portfolio – over 1.5 thousand customers.

 

https://interfax.com.ua/news/blog/1096980.html

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Cyber resilience becomes strategy: DR/BCP and SOC are “must-have” for IT landscape

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, cybersecurity and business continuity (BCP/DR) have solidified as a strategic priority for Ukrainian companies: formal documents have given way to practical integration of SOC, SIEM and other defenses into daily operations. This is stated in the author’s column by Volodymyr Bjelov (GigaCloud) for Interfax-Ukraine.

The expert emphasizes that “security by default” reduces the risks of downtime and data loss and becomes a critical factor when choosing cloud providers.

GigaCloud is a Ukrainian cloud provider (part of GigaGroup), founded in 2016. The company provides IaaS/PaaS services, virtual data centers, redundancy and continuity solutions (DR/BCP) and GPU clouds. The infrastructure is hosted in data centers in Ukraine and EU (Kiev, Lviv, Warsaw) with TIER III/IV compliance; the provider has VMware Cloud Service Provider (Premier) status and is registered in CSA STAR Registry, portfolio – over 1.5 thousand customers.

 

https://interfax.com.ua/news/blog/1096980.html

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Next NATO summit will be held in Turkey in July 2026 – Rutte

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced Tuesday that the North Atlantic Alliance summit in 2026 will be held July 7-8 in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“I want to thank Turkey for organizing this important meeting. Turkey has been a loyal NATO ally for more than 70 years, making an invaluable contribution to our common security,” Rutte was quoted as saying by the organization’s headquarters.
“At our next summit, leaders will continue to work to make NATO a stronger, fairer and more effective alliance, ready to meet the critical challenges to our security,” the alliance secretary general said.
Turkey is hosting the NATO summit for the second time after Istanbul in 2004, Brussels recalled.

 

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Macron calls next 15 days “critical” and welcomes Trump’s intention to provide security guarantees for Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron called the next 15 days “critical” and welcomed US President Donald Trump’s intention to provide security guarantees for Ukraine.
In an interview with the public broadcaster LCI published on August 19, he said that in the next few weeks, everything possible should be done to ensure that a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin takes place. “Then, according to the plan, a trilateral summit could take place in early September,” Macron added.
“But there is work to be done on security guarantees. Therefore, the next 15 days are absolutely critical. To finalize the work with the Americans to give content to the security guarantees. But first of all, we are going to eliminate ambiguities,” the French president said.
The specific content of the security guarantees is currently unknown, although Macron said that “the British, French, Germans, Turks and others are ready to carry out operations – not on the front line, not provocatively, but support operations in the air, at sea and on land.” At the same time, he warned that Russia is a destabilizing force, and President Vladimir Putin “has rarely kept his commitments.”
“One thing I know is that since the end of 2007-2008, President Putin has rarely honored his commitments. He has always been a destabilizing force and has sought to redraw borders to expand his power,” the French president said.
“It is a predator, it is a cannibal at our gates. I’m not saying that tomorrow there will be an attack (by Russia – IF-U) on France, but in the end, it is a threat to Europeans,” Macron said.

 

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“Express Insurance” has collected insurance premiums in amount of UAH 670 mln in 7M-2025

IC “Express Insurance” (Kiev) in January-July 2025 collected insurance premiums in the amount of UAH 670,1 mln, which is by UAH 165,4 mln, or 33% more than for the same period of 2024, according to the insurer’s website. Premiums under CASCO contracts for this period reached UAH 452,6 mln, which by UAH 57,5 mln, or by 14,6%, exceeded the indicator of January-July 2024, under MTPL – UAH 202,1 mln (+107,6%), under other types of insurance – UAH 15,4 mln (+2,2%).

The company informs that in January-July 2025 the total volume of insurance indemnities on insured events amounted to UAH 256,6 mln. Including payments to clients under CASCO -209.5 million UAH, victims under MTPL – 52.2 million UAH.

As reported, as of July 1, 2025 the assets of IC “Express Insurance” amounted to more than UAH 1 billion, which is by UAH 180,9 million more than in the same period of 2024, their share in cash amounted to 88%, which ensures the operational ability of the company to pay compensation for insurance events.

IC “Express Insurance” was founded in 2008 and is a part of the group of companies “UkrAVTO”. It specializes on automobile insurance. Stable high speed of events settlement in IC is provided by optimal interaction with partner service stations.

 

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