The European Investment Bank (EIB) is considering providing Ukraine with EUR220 million for infrastructure restoration, including road and bridge repairs, the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development of Ukraine has reported.
According to a Facebook post on Wednesday, the possibility of financing reconstruction projects and the progress of their implementation were discussed with EIB representatives by the agency’s head Mustafa Nayyem and head of the project management team Vadym Nozdria.
As a reminder, in June 2023, the EIB allocated EUR 50 million of EU grant funds under the NIP platform for modular bridges for the regions of Ukraine most affected by the Russian invasion.
About 98% of Europeans breathe extremely harmful polluted air that causes 400,000 early deaths annually, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper, referring to information collected by satellites and monitoring stations, claims that 98% of Europeans live in areas where the content of extremely harmful microparticles in the air exceeds the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). At the same time, almost two-thirds of citizens live in areas where the limit set by the WHO is almost twice as high.
The worst situation is observed in North Macedonia, where almost two-thirds of the population live in areas where the content of harmful PM2.5 particles exceeds the WHO standard by more than four times. In some areas, including the capital city of Skopje, this standard is exceeded by up to six times.
In general, the situation in Eastern Europe is much worse than in its western parts. The exception is Italy, where the number of microparticles in the north of the country is also almost four times higher than the norm.
Experts say that air pollution causes about 400,000 early deaths in Europe every year. If air quality met WHO standards, more than 200,000 of these people could be saved.
PM2.5 particles are microparticles that are released into the air as a result of fossil fuel combustion. They can enter the bloodstream through the lungs and affect the functioning of almost every organ in the body. These particles can be linked to a wide range of diseases, including diabetes and cancer. According to current WHO recommendations, the average annual concentration of PM2.5 particles should not exceed 5 micrograms per 1 cubic meter.
In January-August 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannya JSC (UGV) paid almost UAH 16 billion in rent payments, the company’s press service said on Tuesday.
According to the press service, UAH 792.1 million, or 5%, of this amount went to the budgets of the local and regional levels where the company operates.
From January to August 2023, the budgets of Kharkiv and Poltava regions received the largest payments – UAH 385.67 million and UAH 332.72 million, respectively.
The amount of rent payments is calculated in accordance with the sale price of Ukrgasvydobuvannya’s natural gas in favor of Naftogaz of Ukraine.
As reported earlier, Ukrgasvydobuvannya aims to increase natural gas production by 1 bcm in 2023 to 13.5 bcm. In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 bcm of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
Investigative actions are underway at the headquarters of NPC Ukrenergo on Wednesday, the company’s press service reports.
According to the press service, the searches are being conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office on the basis of a ruling of the Pechersk District Court of August 30, 2023.
“Ukrenergo facilitates investigative actions and voluntarily provides representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office with all the documents specified in the ruling. It should be noted that the company would have voluntarily provided the investigators with all the necessary documents without conducting a search. However, no such request was received from law enforcement officers,” the NPC said in a statement.
Ukrenergo clarified that from the list of documents of interest to law enforcement officers, some contracts were subject to an audit by the State Audit Service, which completed the audit of the company in March this year.
“Ukrenergo is challenging the results of the SASU audit in court, as it considers them biased and unprofessional, and some of them directly contradict the law. It is unfortunate that energy companies, like defense companies during the war, are forced to fight against the biased conclusions of the SASU. This is not conducive to effective preparation for the heating season, nor to increasing the country’s defense capability,” the company summarized.
Credit institution NovaPay Credit LLC, a member of the non-banking financial group NovaPay, has registered with the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) an issue of interest-bearing C series bonds for UAH 100 million.
According to the prospectus, this bond issue has a maturity of two years instead of three years in the previous two issues, and coupon payments are made quarterly, while in issues “A” and “B” interest payments are made at the end of the circulation.
The interest rate is set at 20% per annum, as in the previous series, but only for the first year of circulation, while for the second year it will be additionally determined, but not higher than twice the discount rate, and announced by September 4, 2024.
The prospectus provides for the possibility of presenting the bonds for redemption from September 14 to 19, 2024 at par.
As in the two previous series, 100 thousand bonds with a par value of UAH 1000 are being issued.
It is noted that 20% of the funds raised are planned to be used for lending to legal entities, and 80% – to individuals.
The start date of the public offering is September 22, 2023, and the end date is September 21, 2024.
The company indicates that it will not use the services of an underwriter and will place the bonds through the PFTS stock exchange.
As reported, earlier this year, NovaPay Credit placed two issues of three-year bonds for UAH 100 million each.
In the first quarter of 2023, NovaPay Credit increased its authorized capital by UAH 120 million to UAH 175 million. NovaPay LLC remained the owner of the company with a 100% stake, and the beneficiaries are the owners of the Nova Poshta group of companies Vyacheslav Klimov and Volodymyr Popereshnyuk.
The company ended the first half of 2023 with a net profit of UAH 17.34 million, while in the same period of 2022 it posted a net loss of UAH 6.04 million. Its revenue increased 2.9 times to UAH 31.75 million.
On September 20, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Vyshgorod, Kyiv region, the company’s press service said.
This restaurant at 7-L Naberezhna Street is reportedly the seventh opening this year. The project was approved in the chain’s development plan before the full-scale invasion and the company continued construction as soon as it became possible.
The one-story McDonald’s has a hall with 131 seats and a terrace with 88 more. The restaurant, along with McDrive, will be open from 07:00 to 22:00, with delivery service from 09:00 to 21:00. The restaurant adheres to the company’s enhanced security rules, namely: establishments close during an air raid and reopen approximately one hour after the alarm is canceled.
To take care of the environment, the restaurant has installed a recuperation system that eliminates the need for gas supply and heating.
The chain is developed by McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. The first restaurant was opened on May 24, 1997 in Kyiv.
As reported, on September 20, 2022, McDonald’s began a phased opening of restaurants in Ukraine. By February 24, 2022, McDonald’s in Ukraine had 109 restaurants in 24 cities of the country.
As of September 20, the company’s network in Ukraine has more than 90 restaurants.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the participant in FDI in McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. is MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK).
