The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has permitted Azerbaijan’s Bakcell telecom operator to acquire shares in Preludium B.V. (the Netherlands) through which MTS Group owns the second largest mobile communications operator in Ukraine – PrJSC VF Ukraine (Vodafone Ukraine).
“Today, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine granted permission to Bakcell LLC for the indirect purchase of shares of Preludium B.V., which grants over 50% of the votes in the management body of the company. This will allow the company from Azerbaijan to get indirect control over the Ukrainian mobile communications operator, known under the Vodafone brand,” the committee said in the Facebook social network.
Bakcell, founded in 1994, is the mobile communications operator and a leading provider of mobile Internet in Azerbaijan. It operates in GSM, UMTS and LTE standards.
Bakcell network consists of more than 7,500 towers, covers 93% of the territory (excluding occupied territories) and 99% of the population of Azerbaijan. The company has more than 3 million subscribers.
According to the results of 2018, Vodafone Ukraine reduced its net profit by 18.1% compared to 2017, to UAH 1.8 billion. The company explained this figure as an increase in costs due to the active deployment of 4G and 3G networks.
Vodafone Ukraine is fully owned by Preludium B.V. It is part of the international MTS Group, which shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ukraine is the 64th in the World Bank Doing Business 2020, climbing by seven points, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said.
“Ukraine climbed at once by seven points in Doing Business 2020 and took 64th place among 190 countries,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday morning.
As the prime minister said, this is a positive signal for Ukrainian entrepreneurs and a green light for foreign investors.
“However, this is only the beginning, we continue working in this direction: the Bankruptcy Code was launched three days ago, a law on stimulating investment activity a few weeks ago, we are intensifying the deregulation processes,” he said.
According to a government portal citing data from the World Bank report, in 2019, Ukraine improved its performance in six out of 10 methodologies that World Bank specialists take into account when compiling the rating.
Ukraine has shown the greatest progress in Protecting Minority Investors (27 points more) and Dealing with Construction Permits (10 points more). In addition, Getting Electricity, International Trade, Registering Property and Getting Credit contributed to the country’s ranking.
“I am sure: at such a pace, through successful reforms, our state will become a magnet for investment in the near future,” Honcharuk said.
Sugar production in Ukraine as of October 23, 2019 amounted to 641,000 tonnes.
According to the Ukrtsukor National Association of Sugar Producers, as of this date 31 sugar refineries were operating in the country and they have refined 4.42 million tonnes of sugar beets.
According to the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, farmers as of October 23 had harvested 6 million tonnes of sugar beets from an area of 137,000 ha, or 62% of the forecast with an average yield of 43.7 tonnes/ha.
As reported, the sugar production season in Ukraine started on September 1. According to the estimates of the Ukrtsukor association, the number of operating sugar factories in the 2019/2020 season will be reduced from 42 to 32, while sugar production is expected to reach 1.1-1.2 million tonnes.
Sugar production in the 2018/2019 season decreased by 15% compared with the previous season, to 1.82 million tonnes.
On October, 26 and 27 Ancient Kyiv in the «Kyivan Rus Park» invites to fight Halloween and also to «honor» the heroes of old Slavic legends and children’s fairy tales.
In this weekend the guests will be awaited by horse shows, tasty dishes prepared on fire, master-classes, horse riding and traditional ancient Kyivan amusements.
The entry ticket price:
• for adults (full price) – 190 UAH.,
• for pensioners and students – 150 UAH.,
• for schoolchildren – 80 UAH.,
• for preschool children – for free,
Ancient Kyiv opens at 10:00. The program starts at 13:30.
Ancient Kyiv in the «Kyivan Rus Park» is located in Kyiv region, Obukhiv district, the vill. Kopachiv.
Route taxis leave from Kyiv from the «Vydybitchi» metro station.
Details on the website www.parkkyivrus.com
The Interfax subscribers can save money with the “openbusiness-20” promo code for a 20%-discount for a full price adult ticket to the Principality of Kyivan Rus:
– by previous order by tel.: +38 044 461-99-37, +38 050 385-20-35
– or at the cash desk at the entrance to the «Kyivan Rus Park».
The Poltava international airport plans to develop a freight terminal, the airport as reported on its website.
Acting Director General of municipal enterprise Airport Poltava Volodymyr Okara and a representative of Umbrella Group Taras Shebediuk signed a memorandum of cooperation to develop the freight terminal at the airport on October 21.
The memo is intended to attract investors for building the freight terminal, which will become the important infrastructure facility for strategic development of the airport.
The parties emphasized their interest in ensuring that the airport is focused not only on passengers, but also on freight transportation.
According to Okara, Bulgarian and German investors became interested in the development of the Poltava airport. In addition, the airport had previously signed a memorandum of cooperation with a Lithuanian company for the construction of the freight terminal.
In addition, it is reported that in November, private airline Ukrainian Helicopters will begin to be based on the territory of the Poltava airport: the contract is unlimited and involves permanent deployment. For providing the site, the airport will receive UAH 150,000-250,000 monthly depending on operations.
Previously, the base of Ukrainian Helicopters was located in Kremenchuk (Poltava region).
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has decided from October 25 to lower the refinancing rate to 15.5% per annum from 16.5% per annum, at which it has been since September 6 of this year.
“The National Bank continues the cycle of easing monetary policy, as it expects inflation to slow to the target of 5%,” the central bank said on Thursday.
The NBU Board said that the basis of this stable trend is the gradual weakening of fundamental pressure on prices, the sign of which is the rapid slowdown in underlying inflation.
“Tight monetary policy has become one of the reasons for the strengthening of the exchange rate and improvement of inflation expectations. This influences prices significantly and exceeds the influence of factors that, on the contrary, push prices upward, in particular, the effect of still stable consumer demand,” the regulator said.
According to its forecasts, inflation this year will drop to 6.3%, and next year it will fall into the target range and reach medium-term 5% at the end of 2020.
“As before, the sharpest decrease in the refinancing rate is expected during 2020 along with the return of inflation to the target range and the improvement of inflation expectations,” the NBU said.
