14 December 2022, Multi Corporation’s managed shopping centres across Europe, including Forum Lviv in Lviv, have joined forces to raise money for Ukraine to purchase first-aid medical kits. The campaign is a cooperation with UNITED24, a platform launched by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
With the fundraising, Multi wants to help Ukrainians who are affected by the war. The fundraising campaign has started on 14 December and will run for three months.
The first aid medical kits – a necessity in the war-stricken zones of Ukraine and in high demand – cost approximately 110 euros. Customers and tenants of Multi managed shopping centres can contribute through Donorbox, an effective online tool to manage fundraising activities.
Donations from the campaign are transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine and allocated to the Ministry of Health, specifically for the purchase of these medical first-aid kits. UNITED24 ensures that the proceeds are allocated for the right purpose. UNITED24 is audited by Deloitte.
Multi Corporation manages more than 80 properties across Europe and Turkey. Thirteen of its employees work in Forum Lviv, in Ukraine and their safety is constantly at risk.
“For over a decade, Multi has been active in Ukraine. We want to support the people of Ukraine during these difficult times,” says Elmar Schoonbrood, Co-CEO of Multi Corporation. “We are keen to raise money for first-aid medical kits, since these are much needed at the moment.”
“The idea behind UNITED24 is simple: to unite the world around Ukraine. To bring us closer together to save our people, defend and rebuild our land,” says Yaroslava Gres, UNITED24 coordinator. “It allows one-click donations to Ukraine from any country. Why is this so important? Because Ukraine knows best what it needs. Because Ukraine can deliver aid directly to where it is needed. Because only the government can rebuild cities or roads in Ukraine to help people come back home.”
UNITED24 is a fundraising platform, initiated by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is the central venue for charitable donations in support of Ukraine. During the first 5 months of operation, UNITED24 collected more than 200 million dollars from citizens of 110 countries around the world. Among UNITED24 ambassadors are famous athletes – Andriy Shevchenko, Elina Svitolina and Oleksandr Usyk, creative director of Balenciaga – Demna, American actors – Liev Schreiber and Mark Hamill, music band Imagine Dragons, singer and actress Barbra Streisand.
About Multi
Multi Corporation is the leading pan-European platform for integrated real estate management services. Since its foundation in 1982, the company has completed over 200 real estate projects with a total GLA of over 5 million sqm, an asset value of nearly 13 billion Euros and has received over 200 industry awards from its peers. Multi currently manages over 80 properties across Europe and welcomes over 400 million customers annually, spending an estimated €4 billion across over 7,200 stores, restaurants, and leisure facilities. Multi offers a full spectrum of services, including active asset and property management, operations, redevelopment and refurbishment, leasing, advisory, legal and compliance. Multi’s in-depth knowledge of retailers, investors, visitors, and local markets provides owners of real estate an integrated and independent platform to protect and drive asset value at every phase of the property’s lifecycle. Multi’s broad financial, commercial, and technical expertise has enabled us to outperform the industry in terms of occupancy, net rental income and state-of-the-art marketing over the years. Multi actively manages assets in 13 countries. The company’s headquarters are in The Netherlands, and has offices in Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. Visit www.multi.eu for more information and to download the corporate profile.
Switzerland followed the EU in imposing new sanctions against Russia, with 141 individuals and 49 legal entities added to the “black lists,” the Swiss government said in a statement.
“Switzerland, by amending the sanctions lists on December 21, thus joined the EU measures,” the press release said.
“Switzerland is amending the sanctions regime as part of the measures that the EU adopted in connection with the supply of Iranian drones to Russia and the continuing alarming situation in Ukraine,” the document specified.
The sanctions will take effect at 6 p.m. local time.
According to the statement, on December 16, the EU also imposed a ban on exports to Russia of a number of other categories of goods and services, and the Swiss government, in turn, will study these measures.
On December 16, the EU Council approved the ninth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes restrictions against the mining and energy sectors and a ban on exports of space industry goods and drones.
Among other things, the EU also added 168 more entities related to the defense industry of Russia to its “black lists. In addition, the ninth EU sanctions package against Russia included 144 individuals, including high-ranking Russian officials, MPs, military personnel and artists from Russia.
Ukraine in January-November this year, Ukraine has reduced imports of manganese ore and concentrate in kind by 64.6% compared to the same period last year – up to 135.070 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), in monetary terms, imports of manganese ore and concentrate fell by 62.7% to $17.978 million for the period.
In August-November, there were almost no imports of manganese ore.
For eleven months of 2022, Ukraine did not supply manganese ore and concentrate for exports.
As reported, Ukraine in 2021 decreased imports of manganese ore and concentrate in volume terms by 26.8% compared to 2020 – to 425.279 thousand tons. In monetary terms, imports of manganese ore and concentrate during this period decreased by 29.6% – to $53.917 million. At the same time, the main imports came from Ghana (99.87% of supplies in monetary terms), Brazil (0.07%) and Belgium (0.05%).
Last year, Ukraine supplied 770 tons of manganese ore and concentrate to Poland (94.38%) and Russia (5.62%) for $89 thousand, while in 2020, Ukraine exported 69.303 tons of manganese ore and concentrate worth $10.819 million.
In Ukraine, the Pokrovsky (formerly Ordzhonikidze) and Marganetsky mining and processing plants (both in Dnepropetrovsk region) extract and process manganese ore.
Consumers of manganese ore are ferroalloy plants.
U.S. President Joe Biden will greet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Wednesday, December 21, at 21.00 Kyiv time.
The relevant information was published in the public agenda of the President of the United States.
At 21.30 Kyiv time, President Biden will host a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky. At 23.30, Biden and Zelensky are expected to hold a joint press conference.
European stock indices rose on Wednesday thanks to positive statistical data and forecasts from Germany as well as corporate news.
The Stoxx Europe 600 composite index of the region’s largest companies rose 0.8 percent to 427.51 points as of 11:30 a.m. The indicator ends 2022 with a decline of about 13% – the maximum since 2018, due to the negative impact of the situation in Ukraine, as well as the energy crisis on corporate profits and the economy as a whole, Bloomberg notes.
“We are facing a slowdown in economic growth, if not a recession, and we don’t see that factor being built into corporate earnings forecasts yet,” UBS Private Wealth Management financial adviser Sarah Poncheck said on Bloomberg TV.
Germany’s DAX stock index gained 0.76% in trading, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.91%, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.44%, Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.68% and Spain’s IBEX 35 gained 0.55%.
Data from research firm GfK, released Wednesday, showed improved consumer sentiment in Germany. The leading indicator assessing consumer confidence prospects for January 2023 rose to minus 37.8 points from minus 40.1 points in December. The index has been rising for three months in a row thanks to measures taken by the German authorities to reduce energy costs for residents, GfK noted.
“It is clear that the steps taken by the German authorities to limit energy prices are having an effect. However, it is too early to say that all the problems are over. The improvement in consumer sentiment that we are seeing at the moment remains fragile,” said GfK consumer sector expert Rolf Bürkl.
“The German Employment Barometer, calculated by the Ifo economic institute, shows a positive outlook for the German labor market in the first quarter of next year. This is mainly due to improvements in the service sector, whose workers are optimistic about the near future, the Ifo said Wednesday.
Stock prices of European sports goods manufacturers rose on Wednesday thanks to stronger-than-expected reports from U.S. competitor Nike Inc. Shares of Adidas AG jumped 7.7%, Puma SE rose 8.5% and British sporting goods retailer JD Sports gained 6.7%.
Uniper SE shares rose 5.9% after the European Commission approved a stabilization package providing, in particular, to increase the capital of the energy company by 8 billion euros.
Among the leaders of growth in Germany were the shares of online retailer Zalando (+4.5%), real estate company Vonovia (+2.6%) and Deutsche Post (+1.3%).
In Britain, Prudential Plc (+1.5%), Shell (+0.9%), Diageo (+0.8%) gained strongly, in France – TotalEnergies SE (+1.6%), L’Oreal (+1.4%), Schneider Electric (+1.3%).
Mining company Ferrexpo with assets in Ukraine, after suspending production since early October at its facilities in the Poltava region due to restrictions on electricity supply due to the shelling of the energy infrastructure by the Russian occupiers, is resuming operations of one pellet production line.
“After suspending its operations in October 2022, the group is now receiving enough electricity to restart one pellet production line. This will allow the group, along with its existing stockpiled products, to fulfill existing contracts with customers,” the company stated in a stock exchange statement Wednesday.
It explains that the company produced about 0.3 million tons of pellets in October-November as a result of disruptions and continued volatility in power supply in the fourth quarter of 2022. Overall pellet production in 2022 is expected to be about 5.9 to 6 million tons (down almost half by 2021 – IF-U).
“Despite the group’s production disruptions, shipments to customers in the fourth quarter of 2022 continued at about 250,000 tons per month,” the press release noted.
As reported, pellet production for the first nine months of 2022 was 5.637 million tons, down 31% from the same period last year.
Ferrexpo in 2021 increased total pellet production by 0.02% over 2020 to 11.220 million tons. The company also produced 234,000 tons of saleable concentrate with 67% iron content (up 28%) in 2021.
Poltava GOK has four pellet production lines.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of LLC “Yeristovsky GOK” and 99.9% of LLC “Belanovsky GOK”. Before the September 2022 court ruling, Ferrexpo also owned 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC.
