President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the need to complete the construction of about 1,000 facilities under the Big Construction national program during 2021-2022.
“About 1,000 objects of the Big Construction project for 2021 and projects planned for the next years must be completed, reconstructed and put into operation. Preferably on time,” Zelensky said at a meeting of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Ukraine in Khmelnytsky on Thursday.
According to the head of state, close interaction of the central and regional authorities is crucial for this.
The international vertically integrated pipe and wheel company Interpipe in January-March of this year reduced its net profit by 90.4% compared to the same period last year, to $ 12.826 million from $ 133.064 million.
According to the company’s interim report on operating and financial results for the three months of 2021, in January-March 2021 revenue decreased by 19.9%, to $ 200.952 million.
According to the company’s press release, following the results of Q1, 2021, EBITDA decreased by 53%, to $ 40 million, the amount of capital investments increased by 58%, to $ 17 million.
Net debt was $ 53 million with a net leverage ratio (net debt to EBITDA) of 0.2x.
The press release notes that in the first quarter of 2021 Interpipe continued to operate in difficult market conditions, which affected its financial results. Total revenues decreased by 20%, mainly due to the deterioration in the performance of the railway division after the imposition by Russia of embargo on the import of Ukrainian railway products. Thus, the revenues of the railway products division fell by 53%, while sales volumes decreased by 32%.
As a result, EBITDA for the first quarter of 2021 decreased by 53%. An additional negative effect is associated with the continuing global growth in market prices for goods and metal products. At the same time, the selling prices for steel pipes and railway products lagged behind the rise in production costs.
At the same time, Interpipe increased its capital investment by investing $ 17 million in overhaul and production development.
As of March 31, 2021, the company’s total debt fell to $ 110 million following the full redemption of 2024 eurobonds on January 26, 2021, keeping the net leverage ratio (net debt to EBITDA) at a low 0.2x.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for recognizing professional qualifications obtained in other countries in Ukraine, the corresponding decision was made at a government meeting on Wednesday.
It is said that this procedure does not apply to qualifications confirmed by documents on the formation of the USSR, obtained before May 15, 1992. Qualifications obtained in countries with which international treaties are in force are recognized in accordance with the provisions of these treaties.
A professional qualification obtained in another country can be recognized in Ukraine if there is a supporting document issued by an authorized body of the relevant country and a document on education.
It is expected that the implementation of this decision will assist citizens of Ukraine, foreigners, stateless persons, refugees and persons who need temporary protection for employment and professional activities in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine.
TOP 20 COUNTRIES OF UKRAINE’S FOREIGN TRADE PARTNERS IN JAN-FEB 2021 (THOUSAND USD)
The state-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) began selling non-core assets received as repayment of non-performing loans (NPL), in particular, it put up for sale 16 lots of real estate in Kyiv and regional centers with a total value of UAH 1 billion, Head of Restructuring and Recovery Department of Ukreximbank Oleh Lazovsky has said. “For the first time in the history of Ukreximbank, it begins the sale of non-core assets. These are mainly real estate, which the bank received as repayment of debt on NPL over ten years […] Some 16 lots have already been put up for sale through the SETAM trading system in the amount of over UAH 1 billion,” he said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Lazovsky, these objects were acquired by the bank in ownership back in 2009-2013, but the bank did not take measures to sell them.
Managing Partner of the National Electronic Stock Exchange Yevhenia Bozhko said that six out of 16 objects are located in Kyiv, and the rest are located in the regional centers of Ukraine, including Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Uzhgorod, Poltava, Khmelnytsky and Chernihiv.
“There are three architectural monuments in our pool of assets in Kyiv […] One of the architectural monuments is an object with an area of 5,400 square meters in the very center of Podil […] At present, it is an office center,” Bozhko said.
According to her, two more architectural monuments are located in the center of Kyiv, not far from the Independence Square (Maidan), and have a three-century history. The windows of one of the buildings overlook Mala Zhytomyrska Street, and the second – Sofiyivska Square, Bozhko said.
She said that the auction for the sale of 16 lots will be held on June 29 through the electronic platform OpenMarket of the state-owned enterprise SETAM and the acceptance of applications has already started.
Lazovsky added that Ukreximbank will hold such auctions in the future.
Ukreximbank was established in 1992, its sole owner is the state.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2021, Ukreximbank ranked third in terms of total assets (UAH 246.877 billion) among 73 banks operating in the country.
The European Business Association (EBA), in partnership with Huawei Ukraine and SAP Ukraine, has conducted an expert study of the current state of digital transformation deployment at private and public levels.
The study was conducted from March 29 to April 14, 2021, according to a joint report by the companies. It covered 130 general, executive and technical directors of EBA member companies.
The majority of respondents assess the volume and quality of the provision of state electronic services as high or satisfactory (7% and 55%, respectively). Among the most widespread electronic government services, the respondents rated the work of the Diia single portal of government services the best of all.
At the same time, according to the respondents, the development of digital infrastructure, as well as improving access to the use of modern technologies (digital inclusion) are definitely priority tasks for the state.
Thus, 47% of respondents assess the level of development of digital infrastructure as moderate, 42% – as low or very low. The majority of respondents also rated the level of digital inclusion as low or very low (54%).
At the same time, 55% of respondents believe that the level of digital transformation of their industries is moderate, 16% – high, another 6% – very high. At the same time, 23% consider it low or very low.
Of the directors surveyed, 41% rate the digital literacy level of their employees as moderate, 13% as low, and 46% as high.
In addition, 47% of directors rated the level of digital development of their business as moderate, 39% think it is high, another 5% – very high. Only 9% of respondents consider the level of digital transformation of their companies to be low.
At the same time, the overwhelming majority (89% of those surveyed) admitted that the corporate strategy of their company contains the goals of digital transformation.
According to the results of the survey, the integral indicator of the digital transformation index of Ukraine amounted to 2.81 points out of five possible and found itself in the negative plane.
According to the research methodology, the integral indicator of the index consists of five equivalent components: the general level of digital transformation of companies; digital transformation of industries; development of digital infrastructure; digital inclusion; volume and quality of state electronic services.
“We are witnessing a dynamic growth of the Ukrainian IT market. However, there are certain barriers that hinder the development of digitalization due to the rather complex regulation of the industry, emigration of specialists, weak infrastructure support for new projects, restrictions on the use of cloud technologies in the public sector, etc. This is confirmed by the results of an expert study,” Director of SAP Ukraine Maxim Matyash said.
© 2016-2025, Open4Business. All rights reserved.
All news and diagrams placed on this Web site is made for internal use. Its reproduction or distribution in any form are welcome in case of placing a direct hyperlink to a source. Reproduction or distribution of information which contains Interfax-Ukraine as a source is prohibited without the written permission from the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Photoes placed on this site are taken from open sources only; rightholder are welcome to make demands to info@open4business.com.ua , in this case we are ready to put your copyright to a photo or replace it.