State-owned enterprise National Atomic Energy Generating Company Energoatom has been transformed into a joint-stock company with 100% of its shares owned by the state, Cabinet of Ministers representative in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said in Telegram. According to him, the government decisions adopted on Friday provide for the establishment of Energoatom JSC, approval of its charter and provisions on the supervisory board and principles of its formation.
“It is established that the joint-stock company is the legal successor of all property and non-property rights and obligations of SE NAEK Energoatom from the date of state registration of the joint-stock company,” Melnychuk specified.
“Corporatization according to the best international standards will strengthen the quality of management, transparency and accountability of the company. It also opens up new opportunities for the development of our nuclear power industry and partnership with international companies,” – says the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal.
As reported, the plan to transform Energoatom into a JSC, 100% owned by the state, was approved by Government Order No. 571-r of June 27, 2023. The process should be completed by March 2024.
The start of the tender procedure for the election of members of the NAEK’s nabsoobet by November 30, 2023 and the transformation of the SOE into a JSC by December 31, 2023, in particular, is a condition for Ukraine to receive an additional $100 million in energy assistance.
“Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It operates the Zaporizhzhya, Pivdenno-Ukrainian, Rivne and Khmelnytskyi plants with 15 power units equipped with water-water power reactors, with a total installed electrical capacity of 13.8 GW. ZNPP with a capacity of 6 GW has been under the occupation of the Russian Federation since May 4, 2022.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Thursday, the penultimate day of trading, weakened the official hryvnia exchange rate by 0.96%, or 36 kopecks, to a new low of 37.98 UAH/$1. According to the NBU rules, this rate will be valid for the remaining days of the year – December 29-31.
The reference value of the hryvnia exchange rate set by the National Bank at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday also decreased by 1%, or 39 kopecks, to 37.9404 UAH/$1.
According to market participants, trading on Thursday was active from the very morning: in the first hour and a half their volume amounted to about $150 million, and transactions even before noon were concluded at the rate of 37.97-37.99 UAH/$1, with offers at the rate of 38.03 UAH/$1.
According to the calculations of the ex-head of the analytical department of Sense Bank Alexey Blinov, the average official rate at the end of 2023 was 36.57 UAH/$1, which is almost identical to the fixed rate, which was in effect for 14 months until October 3 of this year.
The expert specified that the official year-end closing rate for the euro is 42.21 UAH/EUR1.
On the cash market on Thursday, the dollar exchange rate rose even more – by about 45 kopecks, to 38.72 UAH/$1.
The weakening of the hryvnia in recent weeks, the National Bank attributes to the seasonal increase in demand for foreign currency.
As reported, the National Bank’s net sales in November fell to $2.46 bln from $3.34 bln in October and $2.69 bln in September. However, the reduction of external financing to $2.04 billion led to a decrease in international reserves for the fourth consecutive month – by 0.5%, or $187.8 million – to $38 billion 785.2 million.
Interpipe reported that it is currently implementing three investment projects. The largest of them, worth about $40 mln, is the construction of a new pipe heat treatment section. Two more projects are being implemented in the railroad division at the Interpipe NTZ plant in Dnipro.
Nikopol-based Centravis has planned to modernize its pipe-pressing line in the first half of 2024, which will reduce metal waste in the production process. The volume of investments in this project is about $3.5 million.
First Deputy Prime Minister noted that on the day of the visit to the enterprises in Nikopol and Kryvyi Rih these cities had been shelled by the occupants. Therefore, against this background, information about bold investment plans of Dnipropetrovsk enterprises looks particularly impressive.
According to her, metallurgy has always been a fundamental branch of the Ukrainian economy. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the domestic MMC created about 10% of GDP and brought about a third of cash proceeds from all commodity exports. This industry was and still is export-oriented, with more than 80% of metal products shipped abroad.
“The most important thing the government can do now for Ukrainian metallurgy is to ensure unimpeded exports by sea. We have an important achievement in this direction. In September, the first ships with metal traveled through the temporary sea corridor. And in November, we recorded a total increase in exports by sea by 70%. Metal exports are starting to work. This means that metallurgists and miners will have work, and the Ukrainian budget will receive additional taxes. Now we are working on the full unblocking of maritime logistics and launching the mechanism of ship insurance, which is already in place,” Sviridenko summarized, as quoted by the press service.
The company “Biosphere” used the state credit program “5-7-9” and in January 2024 will launch a new shop for tea production, about $20 million has been invested in this project, according to the press release of the Ministry of Economy following the visit of the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko.
It is specified that Sviridenko visited industrial enterprises of Dnipropetrovsk region to get acquainted with production, investment plans and check the effectiveness of state programs to stimulate the economy.
Astarta Agroholding, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has raised up to $60m in a loan from state-owned Oschadbank for the construction of a soybean processing plant in the Poltava region.
“The raised funds will be used to finance an investment project to build a new soybean processing plant in Globino (Poltava region) to produce soy protein concentrate,” the company said on its website on Tuesday.
It is specified that the credit limit of $60 mln is granted to the agricultural holding for seven years.
As reported, the director of business development and investor relations of the group of companies Julia Bereshchenko at the conference-call with investors and analysts on the results of the company’s work for the first nine months of 2023 informed that investments for the construction of the plant will be distributed for three years – the current and two subsequent years. “Astarta intends to finance the project primarily through free cash flow. The Globino plant is expected to produce up to 100,000 tons of concentrated soy protein per year.
“Astarta” announced the start of construction of this line in mid-September 2021. The GPP itself was commissioned in early 2014, with a design processing capacity of 230 thousand tons per year. The plant is capable of producing about 160,000 tons of high-protein soybean meal, 40,000 tons of soybean oil and 9,000 tons of pelletized shell annually. The plant also includes finished product storage facilities and a 42,000-ton elevator and the necessary utilities, roads and railroads. Before the war, more than 80% of the GPP’s production was supplied to the EU, Middle and Far East countries. The main part of soybeans for processing is grown by agrofirms of the agroholding.
In the fall of 2021, Bereshchenko pointed out that the construction of an additional soybean deep processing line at GPP will double EBITDA in the soybean segment, as well as increase revenue.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar mills, agricultural farms with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
The agroholding earned EUR1.24 mln of net profit in the third quarter of 2023, which is 27.7 times less than in the same period of 2022. Astarta’s revenue decreased by 14.4% to EUR104.75m, gross profit decreased by 2.7 times to EUR26.96m, operating profit decreased by 7.6 times to EUR6.79m, and EBITDA decreased by 42.7% to EUR97.25m.
Thanks to a significantly better performance in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, for the first nine months of 2023 as a whole, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR55.97m on revenue growth of 14.8% to EUR392.00m. The company’s gross profit increased by 3.0% to EUR151.91m, while operating profit decreased by 15.9% to EUR79.91m and EBITDA by 10.8% to EUR116.63m.
KP “Zaporozhelektrotrans” on December 22 announced its intention to conclude a contract with IC “VUSO” for services of compulsory civil liability insurance of owners of land vehicles (trolleybuses and streetcars).
As reported in the system of electronic procurement Prozorro, the expected price for the purchase of services – UAH 570,929 thousand, the price offer of the company – UAH 236,310 thousand.
NJSIC ‘Oranta’ also took part in the tender with the offer of UAH 159,4 th.
IC “VUSO” was founded in 2001. It owns 50 licenses: 34 – for voluntary and 16 – for compulsory types of insurance, is represented in all regions of Ukraine. It is a member of ITSBU and UFS, a participant of the agreement on direct settlement of losses and a member of the Nuclear Insurance Pool.
