The mining and metallurgical group Metinvest intends to receive compensation from Russia for the enterprises destroyed by the war and direct it to the development of Ukrainian assets.
“We should get full compensation for the damage from the Russians and reinvest it in restarting Ukrainian plants,” Metinvest CEO Yury Ryzhenkov said on the air of Ian King Live on Sky News in Britain.
According to him, the company helps Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks. He also shared the latest news about the current activities of the group’s enterprises and presented a steel bracelet “Azovstal. Symbol of indestructibility”, a joint project with UNITED24 presidential charity platform to raise funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Metinvest’s participation in the project is part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front militarized initiative.
“From the first days of the full-scale invasion, both of our shareholders (Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky) decided that the company should support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Therefore, in addition to using our equipment to create a defense line, we developed new ways to produce armored steel, which is now used in body armor. We have supplied the Ukrainian Army and Territorial Defense with over 150,000 body armor. We have also developed new steel mobile shelters that can be used in the field to heat and protect the military from shelling,” said the top manager.
In addition, the group purchases and supplies the army with vehicles, armored vehicles, thermal imaging cameras, radios, etc. A large number of vehicles and equipment needed by the Ukrainian defense forces in the field.
Answering the question about what major assets of the company are now operating in Ukraine, the General Director stated that at present the group has two metallurgical plants in Ukraine: one in Zaporizhzhya and the other in Kamensk. Both of them are in operation now and their capacities are about 50-60% loaded. The company may produce armored plates, steel shelters, etc.
As for the group’s foreign assets, they experienced some difficulties at first mainly because they relied on semi-finished products from Azovstal to operate.
“Since then we have diversified our sources of supply of semi-finished products. For example, here in the UK, slabs are now supplied by British Steel, ThyssenKrupp. In Italy it is ADI. We have found different suppliers that can provide the volumes we need,” said the CEO.
According to him, everyone in the U.K. is working under the same conditions. And the steel industry is as competitive as it can be.
“But when it comes to support, and we’re all colleagues, we understand how we can support each other in the industry,” Ryzhenkov said.
Asked about the situation in Mariupol, which is under occupation, he said the group knows little about what is happening in Mariupol right now.
“There are still quite a few people there, but they can’t say much about what’s going on in the city. As far as I understand, the power supply is unstable, there is no water, no heating, there is a humanitarian disaster in the city right now,” the head of the company explained.
And again expressed confidence that there will be compensation for the destroyed plants.
“We are confident that we should receive full compensation for the losses from the Russians and reinvest it in the Ukrainian plants to resume their work,” the top manager summarized.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. The enterprises of the group are mainly located in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The major shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Vadim Novinsky’s Smart Holding (23.76%) that manage it jointly.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
COMPENSATION, DEVELOPMENT, METINVEST, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, Ukrainian plants
Insurance company ARX Life (ARX Life, Kyiv) in January-September 2022 collected insurance premiums for UAH 197.7 mln, which is 16.82% less than a year earlier, according to Standard-Rating RA website updated its credit rating/ financial stability (reliability) rating of the insurer on the national scale at uaAAA.
Credit-Rating notes that decrease of gross business of the company has been caused by Russian aggression, introduction of martial law, fall of business activity level in the country and is the general tendency in the insurance market of Ukraine.
The volume of payouts and indemnities of the insurer has grown by 1,36% up to UAH 37,735 mln in the 9 months of 2022 comparing to the same period of 2021. Therefore, the level of payments of the insurer has grown by 3,43 p.p., up to 19,09%.
Acquisition expenses of the insurer have decreased by 17,85% down to UAH 111,458 mln in the first three quarters of 2022 in comparison with the same period of 2021.
According to the results of work during the nine months of 2022 the company has received a net profit of UAH 17,196 mln, that is by 17,74% lower than the profit received in January-September 2021.
As of October 1, 2022 assets of the company increased by 12.3%, to 222.351 million UAH, shareholders’ equity increased by 17.53%, to 115.294 million UAH, liabilities increased by 7.16%, to 107.057 million UAH, cash and cash equivalents increased by 2.89 times and amounted to 74.154 million UAH.
RA notes, that as of the reporting date the insurer has made financial investments in the amount of UAH 126,548 mln, entirely consisting of government bonds. The availability of such investments had a positive impact on the liquid assets of ALC IC ARKS Life, which in the aggregate exceeded its liabilities in 1,87 times.
The Agency draws attention to that JSC IC ARKS has unprecedentedly high level of external support from the main shareholder with headquarters in Toronto (Canada) – Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited – a holding company which through its subsidiaries is mainly engaged in insurance against accidents, property insurance and investment management.
Dniprovsky Iron and Steel Plant (DMZ, formerly Evraz-DMZ), part of DCH Steel Group of DCH businessman Oleksandr Iaroslavskyi, according to the results in 2021 received a net profit of UAH 1 billion 725.157 million, while finished the year 2020 with a net loss of UAH 394.091 million.
According to the note attached to the agenda of the annual meeting of shareholders, scheduled for December 22, which will be held remotely, the outstanding loss at the end of last year was UAH 826.728 million.
The shareholders intend to summarize the results of the activity in 2021, approve reports and direct the received profit to redeem the losses of the previous years.
The meeting will also consider personnel matters: dismissal of members of the Supervisory Board and Revision Commission and election of new ones.
Besides, the shareholders will elect the company auditor and approve the major transactions.
DMZ specializes in the production of steel, pig iron, rolled steel and rolled products.
On March 1, 2018, DCH Group signed an agreement to purchase Dneprovsky Metallurgical Plant from Evraz.
According to NDU as of the fourth quarter of 2020, Drampisco Limited (Cyprus) owns 97.7346% of DMZ shares.
The authorized capital of PrJSC is UAH 574.994 mln, the nominal value of one share is UAH 0.25.
On Saturday, November 7, on the basis of the analytical center “Experts Club” with the assistance of the public association “Ukrsadvinprom” and the charitable foundation “Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine”, the second scientific and practical seminar-tasting of vintage drinks aged from 20 to 80 years was held. The seminar was attended by representatives of the Ukrainian wine industry, retail, media, and other experts.
At the seminar, Igor Magalyas, an expert collector of vintage alcoholic beverages, introduced the participants to the most popular varieties of Ukrainian and European vintage wines, brandy and other drinks aged up to 80 years. Ukrainian products were presented at the conference by such brands as Sherry Massandra 1983 and Black Doctor 2007. Of the foreign alcoholic brands, Curasao liqueur from the 1950s, the rare sherry brandy Hispano from 1870 and another Spanish drink Ponche Rives from 1978 received the highest ratings from the participants. In total, the participants of the seminar evaluated 15 different vintage drinks.
According to Igor Magalyas, all products presented at the seminar are in the budget price segment and their cost does not exceed the cost of modern branded alcohol on the shelves of Ukrainian supermarkets.
“Most of the drinks presented here were purchased by collectors in Europe at auctions or at sales of private collections. At the same time, they have a number of taste and quality advantages over more modern drinks that can be freely bought at retail outlets, even if it is the same brand,” he said.
According to the expert, the fact is that in the 80-90s of the last century, the automation of alcohol production, introduced in order to increase the volume of products sold, had a negative impact on the quality of wine and distilled drinks.
“In particular, in my opinion, the ability of the same brandies to improve their palatability as they age after bottling was practically lost. In other words, if we open a bottle of good brandy from 1970 today, then such a drink will have a much richer flavor bouquet than if we opened a bottle of the same brandy 30 years later, but, say, 2020 bottling,” Igor explained Magalyas.
The organizer of the seminar Maxim Urakin, in turn, emphasized the importance of developing the vintage drinks market in Ukraine and popularizing the culture of drinking them.
“Each bottle of such wine or brandy has its own history; it is a rather rare, almost unique product, but at the same time it is quite affordable and popular in Europe. If we add up the age of drinks at today’s tasting, we get an impressive figure of more than 700 years of the total age of drinks, which also makes our event unique,” he stressed.
Vintage (milezim) – in winemaking means the year of ripening of the harvest of a certain grape variety from which wine, brandy, cognac or other drink based on it is produced. This indicator is important in determining the characteristics of the drink, since weather and climate conditions change every season, which can both positively and negatively affect the organoleptic characteristics of drinks of the same brand.
“Experts Club” is an analytical center engaged in research in the field of economics, sociology and other scientific disciplines. In particular, with the assistance of the Club of Experts, several events were held last year to promote domestic winemaking products.
Public Union “Ukrsadvinprom” acted as a partner of the seminar and tasting. “Ukrsadvinprom” unites about 200 producers of fruits, berries, nuts and grapes, enterprises engaged in the processing of fruits and berries, wine production, as well as scientific institutions for the introduction of new scientific approaches to production.
Charitable Foundation “Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine” carries out extensive volunteer activities. In particular, with the support of the rector of KNUCA (KNUBA) Petr Kulikov, the fund will soon hand over a modern mobile hospital. The head of the fund is Artem Goncharenko.
Organizers will send part of the proceeds from the event to purchase a mobile hospital.
CHARITY, CONFERENCE, EXPERT_CLUB, SCIENCE, UKRSADVINPROM, VINTAGE_WINE, WINE, WINEMAKING, АРТЕМ ГОНЧАРЕНКО
Net sales of dollars by the National Bank of Ukraine this week fell to $166.1 million from $295.0 million a week earlier.
According to the National Bank on its website, it bought $16.1 million from November 14 to 18, which is slightly higher than usual purchase volumes during the war ($7-8 million), while it sold $182.2 million, compared to $326.5 million a week earlier.
At the cash market, the hryvnia appreciated by about UAH 0.3 during the week to about UAH 40.25 / $1. The spread between the selling and buying rates remains narrow.
The National Bank’s interventions in October amounted to $2.03 billion, as compared to $2.75 billion in September, $1.33 billion in August, and $1.2 billion in July, and remain far less than in June ($3.96 billion) and May ($3.4 billion).
In total, since the beginning of the year to November 18 inclusive, the NBU bought $3 billion 226.9 million and EUR111.0 million in the market, and sold $22 billion 427.0 million and EUR1 billion 789.1 million.
Since the beginning of the war the purchase of currency reached $2 billion 570.0 million and EUR111.0 million, while the sale reached $19 billion 656.8 million and EUR1 billion 789.1 million.
Ukraine’s international reserves as of November 1, 2022, according to the NBU, amounted to $25 billion 244.2 million (in equivalent), which is 5.5% more than at the beginning of October.
PJSC Yuzhkoks (Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk region) last year received a net profit of UAH 1 billion 292.672 million in net profit, while the previous year there was a net loss of UAH 632.050 million.
According to the official information of the company to the agenda of the annual meeting of shareholders, scheduled for December 21, which will be held remotely, at the end of 2021 its undistributed profits amounted to 1 billion 507.635 million UAH.
According to the draft decision of the meeting, the shareholders intend to summarize the work in 2021, choose an auditing company and distribute profits.
It is suggested to leave the profit received in 2021 undistributed.
Dashuria Ltd. owns 94.9565% of the company as of the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the NDU.
Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) reported in a 2018 report that the company acquired a 23.71% stake in Yuzhkoks for $30 million.
The authorized capital of PJSC “Evraz Yuzhkoks” – 171.918 million UAH, the par value of the share – 0.25 UAH.
