Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies, has acquired an additional stake in the largest coking coal business in Ukraine, Pokrovske coal business, increasing its effective interest to a controlling stake.
According to a company press release issued on Friday, as a result of consolidating the acquired businesses into the group, Metinvest expects to become fully self-sufficient in coking coal for its hot metal production.
The acquired business comprises several entities (jointly referred to as the Pokrovske coal business), the most significant of which are Pokrovske Colliery and Svyato-Varvarinskaya Enrichment Factory. Together, they mine raw coal, enrich it and sell coking coal concentrate. The assets are located on the border of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, close to the group’s coke producers. None of the acquired assets are located in the non-controlled territories of Ukraine.
Pokrovske Colliery produces mostly high-quality K-grade coking coal, which is used in metallurgical coke production. As at 1 January 2019, its JORC Mineral Resources and Reserves amounted to 248 million tonnes and 151 million tonnes, respectively, enough to maintain operations for at least 30 years.
Svyato-Varvarinskaya Enrichment Factory is one of the largest beneficiation plants in Ukraine. Its design processing capacity is also around 8 million tonnes of raw coking coal per year.
In 2020, the Pokrovske coal business mined 6.2 million tonnes of raw coal, up 55% from 2018, and produced 3.2 million tonnes of coking coal concentrate, up 39% from 2018.
According to the press release, the acquisition of control in the Pokrovske coal business follows Metinvest acquiring 24.77% of the effective interest in the Pokrovske coal business in July 2018, as well as an option to purchase the remaining 75.22% from the other co-investors upon condition of obtaining all required governmental and other approvals. In October 2020, the group received a one-year approval from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to obtain control over certain entities being part of the Pokrovske coal business.
Total consideration for an additional stake acquired by the group in the Pokrovske coal business was driven by the value of the option Metinvest obtained in 2018.
In 2019-2020, amid a potential business combination with Metinvest, the Pokrovske coal business restructured a significant part of its loans and borrowings. As at December 31, 2020, the Pokrovske coal business had external debt of $535 million. This mainly consists of a $480 million restructured debt facility maturing in 2030. It is Metinvest’s intention to prudently manage the debt portfolio of the Pokrovske coal business.
Commenting on the news Chief Executive Officer of Metinvest Yuriy Ryzhenkov said that this acquisition is very important for Metinvest.
“The group has experienced a lack of adequate coking coal supplies in recent years. We are now fully self-sufficient in coking coal, which strengthens our vertical integration. From here, the next objective is to integrate the assets into the group to maximise synergies. I am confident that the Pokrovske coal business will improve its efficiency as part of Metinvest and believe that its employees will benefit from our corporate culture and strong social guarantees,” the top manager said.
Potato producer Central Plains Group Ukraine (CPG) intends to build a waste-free potato processing plant in Hlyniany (Lviv region) with a capacity of 40,000-50,000 tonnes per year.
This is stated in a posting on the website of the Lviv Regional State Administration.
“We grow potatoes and cooperate with the Frito-Lay company, which produces chips. Now every sixth pack of chips of this company is made from our potatoes, and in general, this is every tenth pack in Ukraine. Ambitious plans are that every fourth pack in Ukraine was from our potatoes,” member of the Board of Directors and a representative of the Finnish Investment Fund Oleh Drin said.
According to the administration, investors from CPG Ukraine and Governor Maksym Kozytsky discussed the working aspects of the project, in particular the permits for the construction of a potato processing plant. CPG also discussed the possibility of repairing the Zastavne-Hlyniany road in 2021 with the regional administration.
The administration said that the company, founded by a group of farmers from the U.K. and Finland, plans to invest about $7 million in a project for waste-free processing of potatoes (including starch) and create about 50 jobs.
“For the profitable operation of the plant there is a great need for raw materials. We plan to establish cooperation with local farmers and build an effective process for growing and supplying raw materials to the plant. We plan to cooperate with USAID on the development of farming and in the future to establish a process for purchasing potatoes from farmers,” Drin said.
According to the administration, CPG in 2020 grew 15,000 tonnes of potatoes in Kamianka-Buzka and Sambir districts of Lviv region on a total area of 700 hectares.
Last year, the company put into operation the first stage of potato storage facility with a capacity of 11,000 tonnes with refrigeration equipment. This year, CPG plans to build a second stage of the potato storage facility with a similar capacity.
Euroins Ukraine insurance company (Kyiv) ended 2020 with a net profit of UAH 37.548 million versus a net loss of UAH 14.6 million in 2019, follows from the materials for the agenda of the meeting of shareholders, made public in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
According to it, the company’s assets over the past year grew by 47%, to UAH 433.2 million, cash and their equivalent – by 22%, to UAH 56.4 million, equity – by 39.8%, to 129.7 UAH million, accounts receivable – by 71.6%, to UAH 67.2 million.
Noncurrent liabilities of the company in 2020 rose by 27.7%, to UAH 209.1 million, current liabilities – by 83.9%, to UAH 94.419 million.
As reported, Euroins Ukraine collected UAH 320 million in insurance payments in 2020, which is 25% more than a year earlier.
The insurer said that, according to the data of the Motor Transport Insurance Bureau of Ukraine, in 2020 Euroins Ukraine entered the top ten insurers of Ukraine in terms of the number of compulsory civil liability insurance of land vehicle owners (OSAGO) policies sold. The total amount of insurance payments of the company over 2020 exceeded UAH 110 million.
PrJSC Euroins Ukraine has been operating on the Ukrainian market since 1992, is a part of Euroins Insurance Group AD (Bulgaria).
The State Agency for Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine (Ukrinfraproekt) has fulfilled the state road safety program by 72% in 2020, head of the agency Kyrylo Khomiakov said during the presentation of the report for the past year on Friday.
According to him, in 2018 the program was not completed, in 2019 it was completed by 30%.
“If we talk about the tasks of the state program, 42 out of 45 tasks for 2020 have been fully completed. One of the tasks – the construction of roundabouts – has not been fully completed due to the SACI (State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate) reform and weather conditions, but we will complete this by the middle of the second quarter,” he said.
Among the most important projects implemented by the agency in 2020, Khomiakov named: the installation of 20 Weigh-in-Motion (WiM) complexes on the roads; purchase of 220 auto-fixing complexes, which are now being installed on state roads; installation of four integrated speed control systems (Phantoms) and 72 TrueCam 2.
According to him, in general, in 2020, UAH 3.168 billion was allocated for this program, 100% of which were procured, contracts were signed in the amount of UAH 2.993 billion (95%).
Among Ukrainian politicians, Volodymyr Zelensky (39.5% of Ukrainians trust him), Vitali Klitschko (33.8%), Serhiy Prytula (31.6%) and Volodymyr Groysman (31%) enjoy the highest level of trust from the population among Ukrainian politicians, evidenced by the results of an all-Ukrainian public opinion poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from February 23 to March 1, 2021.
According to the survey, 39.5% of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky, while 54.3% do not trust him (the balance of trust-distrust is -14.7%); Kyiv mayor Klitschko is trusted by 33.8%, 52.8% do not trust him (balance -19%); public activist, volunteer and TV presenter Prytula is trusted by 31.6%, 34% do not trust him (balance -2.3%); ex-prime minister Volodymyr Groisman has trust of 31%, 53.1% have no confidence in him (balance -22.1%); Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov has trust of 28.3%, no trust from 30.6% (balance -2.3%).
At the same time, 26.3% of Ukrainians trust MP Yulia Tymoshenko, 67.6% have distrust of her (the balance of trust and distrust is 41.3%); MP Yuriy Boiko has trust of 24.6%, 52.2% have no confidence in him (balance -27.6%), ex-MP Oleh Liashko is trusted by 23.2%, 69.5% do not trust him (balance -46.3%), 22.4% trust Ihor Smeshko, 22.6% do not trust him (balance -0.2%), the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, is trusted by 21.9%, 73.5% have no confidence in him (balance -51.6%).
The level of trust in other politicians is below 20%.
If we compare the percentage of confidence in a politician with the same indicator in January 2021, the greatest changes can be traced in the case with Zelensky – an increase from 35.6% to 39.5%, Prytula – an increase from 27.3% to 31.6%, Boiko – a decrease from 28.9% to 24.6%, Medvedchuk – a decrease from 19.6% to 16.2%, Palytsia – a decrease from 5.3% to 3%.
The respondents were also asked a similar question about trust in the leaders of other states.
As it turned out, 30.3% Ukrainians trust Alexander Lukashenko, while 56.8% do not trust him, so his balance of trust-distrust is -26.5%. Moreover, compared to January 2021, the level of trust in him decreased.
Joe Biden is trusted by 29.4% of Ukrainians, and not trusted by 25.5%. Its balance is positive and amounts to + 3.9%, respectively. Compared to January 2021, no significant changes have been observed.
Vladimir Putin was the most unfavorable among Ukrainians – 82.4% do not trust him versus 10.8% of those who trust (-71.6% balance).
The public opinion poll was conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from February 23 to March 1, 2021 using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). Some 1,207 respondents living in 86 settlements of all regions of Ukraine (except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were randomly selected during three rounds with a quota selection at the final round, which is representative for the population of Ukraine aged over 18.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample is not more than 2.9% for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% for indicators close to 25%, 1.9% for indicators close to 12%, and 1.3% for indicators close to 5%.
The Parkovyi data center (Ante Mediam LLC, Kyiv) notes the growing demand for server equipment placement in data processing centers (data centers).
As member of the supervisory board of the Parkovyi data center Tetiana Honcharova has told Interfax-Ukraine, the lockdown and its consequences have caused great demand in the digitalization of business.
“We are seeing an increase in the demand for server equipment placement. The reason for the demand in this segment is the unprofitability for the business to maintain and provide its own server rooms with the required level of security,” she said.
According to Honcharova, the trends of 2020 were a noticeable increase in interest in cloud services from the public sector, as well as an increased attention to cloud data backup from large businesses.
She also noted that, despite the pandemic, 2020 turned out to be quite productive for the cloud services market.
“As for the Parkovyi, we see a 20% growth over 2020. On average in the market, according to our analysts, over the next five years, there will be a 15% growth annually. Considering that our team started work in the middle of the year, the growth of Parkovyi in 2020 exceeded the market average,” Honcharova said.
The Parkovyi data center, located in the territory of the Parkovy congress and exhibition center in Kyiv, was put into operation in May 2013. It is certified according to the TIER III security level, owns an international certificate in the field of information security ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and a certificate of conformity for technical information protection systems issued by the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine.
The total area of the data center is 2,730 square meters, the number of racks is 400 units. The data center is connected to two independent energy sources with a capacity of 4 MW.
