Commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Neizhpapa at a meeting in Odesa with Defense Attaché at the Danish Embassy in Ukraine Felix Ebbestad discussed issues of military cooperation, primarily the possibility of building ships with the support of Denmark.
As the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this on Facebook on Monday, the meeting separately considered the main development priorities, which provide for external support and the possibility of transferring equipment to Ukrainian crews to carry out tasks to combat the damage of ships within the material and technical assistance.
Neizhpapa spoke about modern maritime threats, the main achievements in the reform and development of the national fleet, taking into account the standards of the North Atlantic Alliance.
According to the attaché, Denmark is sympathetic to the challenges and threats to Ukraine and is ready to develop relations with the aim of helping our country to maintain security not only in the Azov-Black Sea region, but in the world as a whole.
The decrease in the share of non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector of Ukraine to 35% from 36.3% in August was facilitated by the correct regulatory policy of the National Bank and less risky new loans that banks are issuing now, the founder and partner of the group of companies, Andriy Volkov, commented on the statistics of the central bank for the specified month to the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
He considers the decline in the share of problem loans in the banking system to be a natural process for several reasons. First, the NBU introduced rather strict rules for the assessment and provisioning of the loan portfolio, after which the banks began fruitful work on restructuring NPLs, collecting them or selling them to specialized companies. Secondly, the country is gradually resuming lending – both retail and corporate. However, due to the filing of the banks’ risk management and NBU requirements, it is now less risky and produces much fewer non-performing loans. Accordingly, the portfolio of banks began to grow again, which means that the share of old problem debts began to decline.
According to Volkov’s forecasts, this trend will continue, and the share of non-performing loans will continue to decrease.
At the same time, he drew attention to where these troubled debts are concentrated.
“Commercial banks, for the most part, have resolved or are successfully solving issues with non-performing loans: they have restructured more or less “live” debts or debts associated with the shareholders and the bank management, collected collateral from non-performing loans, sold or are selling loans, with the collection of which they cannot cope independently. Therefore, the main volume of bad debts was concentrated in state banks. And this is the next point of development for the Ukrainian NPL market, in which changes must take place – the system of working with problem debts of state banks will change or, more realistically, the sale of bad debts will begin, because without this, neither development nor sale of state-owned banks is possible,” the financier believes.
In addition, according to him, solving problems with problem debts in state banks is also on the agenda of international creditors and donors of Ukraine. Therefore, the government as a shareholder, the NBU as a regulator, as well as the supervisory boards of state banks are forced to pay sufficient attention to them.
If the presidential elections in Ukraine were held in the near future, then 32% of Ukrainians who will definitely go to the elections and have decided on their choice, would vote for incumbent President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to results of the all-Ukrainian sociological survey “Socio-Political Moods of Ukrainians: September 2021”, held by the Ukrainian Institute of the Future together with the sociological company New Image Marketing Group.
Zelensky’s rating rose 2% from June, the Institute said in a press release on Facebook on Monday, October 4.
“That is, 32% of those who have made up their minds and will go to the polls are now ready to vote for him. While the ratings of his closest competitors Poroshenko and Boiko dropped by 2% and 1%, respectively. Both have 12% among those who have made up their minds and will go to the polls. The fourth place is consistently occupied by Yulia Tymoshenko – 11% among those who have made up their minds and will go to the polls. At the same time, the rating of Groisman and Muraev increased to 7% among those who decided to go to the polls,” the release says.
It clarifies that young people under 24 years of age support Zelensky the most – 39% of respondents.
“Even in the East, Zelensky is ahead of Boiko – 27% to 16% respectively. Nevertheless, Donbas remains an openly problematic region for Zelensky – there he loses to Boiko unquestioningly – 16% to 29%.
Relatively little support in Donetsk and Luhansk regions correlates with low confidence in the incumbent head of state there and a greater proportion of those who support early presidential elections,” the release says.
In addition, if the elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held next Sunday, then 23% of those polled would vote for the Servant of the People party. The Opposition Platform is on the second and third place in terms of electoral preferences of 16% of citizens who decided to go to the polls, and the European Solidarity party – for 15% of those who decided to go to the polls.
Just like in the presidential rating, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivschyna party ranks fourth – 14% among those who have made up their minds and will go to the polls. Ihor Smeshko’s “Strength and Honor” received fewer votes – 7% among those who decided to go to the polls.
“The Ukrainian Strategy of Groisman party and Yevhen Muraev’s Nashi Party did not overcome the 5% barrier in absolute terms, having received 4% each among those who decided to go to the elections. Also the party of Anatoliy Shariy and the party of Prytula got 3% each among those who decided to go to the polls. And the Holos party got 2% among those who decided to go to the polls,” the Institute reports.
They clarify that in comparison with the sentiments of respondents regarding participation in the presidential elections, the share of those wishing to vote for MPs is slightly lower – 70% declare their desire to vote in the parliamentary elections. However, 25% will not go to the parliamentary elections and will not vote. And another 5% of citizens were undecided.
All-Ukrainian sociological research “Socio-political moods of Ukrainians: September 2021” was conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of the Future together with the sociological company New Image Marketing Group among 2,400 respondents throughout Ukraine from September 18 to September 28, 2021. The margin of error is no more than 2%.
President of Israel Isaac Herzog started an official visit to Ukraine.
“I just flew to Kyiv to start an official visit. The Jewish people here have a glorious past, but also a difficult and painful history. Tomorrow I will take part in the important opening ceremony of the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Kyiv, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy,” Herzog said on Twitter on Tuesday.
The official welcoming ceremony was held in Kyiv between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of Israel Isaac Herzog. Statements of the presidents of Ukraine and Israel for media representatives are expected.
FM Logistic Ukraine will invest $ 25-30 million in the construction of the fifth phase of a logistics complex with an area of 20,000 square meters, CEO of FM Logistic Ukraine Sebastien Lardellier said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“The land site in Dudarkiv is ours, it allows us to build another 32,000 square meters of modern logistics real estate, of which we plan to build 20,000 square meters in the coming years. We hope that we will receive construction permits quickly enough. The construction of these buildings, plus their equipment, requires $ 25-30 million in investment,” he said.
The FM Logistic Ukraine complex (Dudarkiv village, Kyiv region) includes 60,000 square meters of A class warehouse space. About $ 50 million was invested in it.
According to the expert, out of 60,000 square meters, some 54,000 square meters have been commissioned.
“There is a preliminary agreement for another 2,000 square meters. Thus, 4,000 square meters are still free,” he said.
He said that the rate of expansion of the offer depends on the activity of the market.
“The question of expansion is in two cases: when our current client develops his business, it becomes cramped for him, and we continue to build according to his requests. The second option is to attract new clients. According to the estimated growth rates, we will complete and fill this site within four years,” he added.
FM Logistic Ukraine, operating since 1996, is included in the top five largest operators of the logistics market in Ukraine. It is part of the international group of companies FM Logistic.
FM Logistic is a family business that was founded in 1967 in the French region of Lorraine. The company owns 180 warehouses with a total area of 4 million square meters in 14 countries of the world.
FM Logistic Ukraine provides logistics operator services, including warehousing, e-commerce logistics, co-packing, customs clearance, domestic and international transportation, city transportation, and management of the entire supply chain.
Today the staff of FM Logistic Ukraine has 900 employees.
JSC Ukreximbank did not find any facts of terrorist financing when issuing a loan of $60 million to companies whose beneficiary is a citizen of Ukraine with the status of an internally displaced person, Serhiy Briukhovetsky, acting chairman of the bank’s board Serhiy Yermakov said. “At the time the loan was issued, the borrower, Mr. Briukhovetsky, went through the proper KYC verification procedure, within which the bank did not reveal information that would indicate the existence of criminal cases and proceedings in connection with the fact of holding shares in the company, including registered in uncontrolled territories,” he said at a press briefing at the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
For clarification, the bank received the client’s consent to disclose information that may constitute banking secrecy, Yermakov added.
According to the bank, as part of the check of the borrower, it was revealed that Briukhovetsky owns the corporate rights of three companies registered in the territory not controlled by Ukraine: Gorspetslift (50%, Horlivka), Dikon LLC (24%, Bakhmut), Spetsremmash LLC (16.6%, Horlivka). He also owned 45% of Eastern Donbas LLC (Horlivka), which ceased operations in 2011.
According to Yermakov, in April 2021 Ukeximbank provided a loan of $60 million to the companies Wholesale Network 2011 LLC and Slavian LLC, the beneficiary of which is Briukhovetsky. The loan was issued for the acquisition of corporate rights and the completion of the transaction for the purchase of the Sky Mall trade center in Kyiv. The total sum of the purchase is $80 million.
Thus, $39 million of the loan was used to refinance the Wholesale Network 2011 loan obligations in two Ukrainian and one European banks. Another $21 million was used to complete the acquisition of Sky Mall. In addition, Briukhovetsky contributed $20 million at the expense of his own funds and the funds of a related company – Sky Finance LLC.
“At the request of the bank, the borrower provided the conclusions of professional lawyers, including the British, registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, on the settlement of corporate conflicts and lawsuits … The availability of an arbitration award in the case of Estonian businessman Teder Hillar did not jeopardize the borrowers’ ownership of Sky Mall,” Yermakov said.
According to him, the entire complex of structures and the parking space of the Sky Mall shopping center are pledged on the loan. In addition, the bank received a guarantee from Briukhovetsky.
