Investment of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) this year exceeded $1 billion, EBRD Vice President Alain Pilloux has said. This week, by coincidence, the bank’s investments in the country in 2019 exceeded $1 billion. And by the end of the year, the EBRD is going to invest even more, he said at a meeting with reporters on Thursday.
This amount may not be enough, but this is clearly not a small amount of investment in the country, Pilloux said.
He also added that he had visited Ukraine six times over the past year. Pilloux said that the EBRD knows Ukraine “in detail:” the EBRD is working not only in Kyiv, but in all regions. The bank is working with cities, Ukrainian companies, he said. Pilloux said that they are not the kind of people who arrive from London or other places and look at Ukraine from windows of five-star hotels.
Russia is ready for constructive gas talks with Ukraine and the European Commission with regard to the extension of the contact on deliveries and transit of Russian oil to Europe through Ukraine, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told journalists before the beginning of the talks.
“We’re ready for constructive talks,” he said when asked about the possibility that a long-term contract with Ukraine will be signed.
The opening of all tenants of the first flow of Cherry Mall in Vyshneve, Kyiv-Sviatoshynsky district of Kyiv region, is scheduled for late September 2019.
“By the end of September, all stores and outlets located on 3,400 square meters of the first floor will open in the new Cherry Mall with a total area of 18,000 square meters,” Project Manager, partner of UTG (an exclusive agent for renting out retail space in the Cherry Mall) Artem Neposedov said.
According to him, in particular, the first floor of the Cherry Mall includes Allo, Master Zoo, Farmacia, Italia del Gusto, Aurum, lifecell, D&P, Beer market, Coffee Beans, Hazelnut Chest shops and others.
In addition, in the Quarter of Gifts with an area of 240 square meters, Snuffbox, Mobi bug, Express manicure, operators of accessories and leather goods will begin working.
The shopping center has five levels, the total area is 18,000 square meters, lettable area is 15,000 square meters. At the same time, the occupancy of the shopping center as of September 12 is 90%.
As reported, in August 2019, Fozzy Group, the commercial and industrial group opened a new Fora supermarket with an area of 1,500 square meters in the Cherry Mall, expanding the food retail network to 244 stores.
According to company estimates, attendance at Cherry Mall in the first year will be about 15,000-18,000 people a day with the prospect of further growth to 20,000 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the model of the land market in the country proposed by Ukrainian authorities implies that only Ukrainian individuals and legal entities will be able to buy land.
“I want to dispel several myths. First, the land belongs to the Ukrainians. In the model that we offer with the government, only Ukrainian citizens or Ukrainian companies will be able to buy or sell land,” he said, speaking at a meeting with Ukrainian farmers in Kyiv on Thursday.
Poland’s fashion retailer LPP Group, which manages the Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay brands, in January-June 2019 saw a 29.3% rise in sales in Ukraine year-over-year, to PLN 194.2 million (around $49.7 million). According to the company’s financial statements, LPP total sales revenue for six months grew by 11.3%, exceeding PLN 4 billion (about $1 billion). At the same time, one of the highest sales growth pace was recorded in Ukraine.
In the first half of the year, LPP revenue abroad exceeded domestic revenues, being PLN 2 billion (49.6% of the group’s total sales). The largest volumes of foreign sales are in Russia (17.9%), the Czech Republic (5%), Ukraine (4.8%) and Romania (4.0%). Thus, the Ukrainian market for the Polish retailer remains the fourth largest in the income structure.
According to the results of the reporting period, all LPP brands showed an increase in like-for-like sales. The highest growth was seen in the stores House (double-digit) and Sinsay.
In the second half of 2019, the group plans to launch an online store in Ukraine and for all EU countries. According to the report, thanks to the launch of e-commerce in these markets in 2019, the revenue of the online channel will exceed PLN 1 billion.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has proposed in 2020 to refuse of target subventions to the agricultural enterprises and to transfer all budget funds in an amount of UAH 4.4. billion for compensation of interest rate under the credits, which the framers and small agrarian entities will take for land purchase, Deputy Economy, Trade and Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky said. “There would be no subventions [in state budget 2020],” he told the journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Vysotsky said that partial compensation for the interest rate would be on the level of the NBU discount rate, which now stands at 16.5%.
The deputy minister explained that when calculating the total amount of compensation, it was assumed that the land market was planned to be launched in the second half of the year, the average price of one hectare of land will be about UAH 40,000 with an average normative monetary value of UAH 27,000 per ha, and about 5% of unit owners are ready to become buyers, which corresponds to approximately 1.35 million hectares.
Vysotsky also said that the bill on land turnover, which should be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by October 1, implies restrictions on the purchase of 15% of the agricultural land of the region and 0.5% of the country in the absence of such restrictions for tenants, as well as a minimum selling price on the level of normative monetary value. Among other conditions, the tenant’s priority right to buy out and the possibility of purchase by non-residents (excluding representatives of the aggressor country) only through the registration of a resident company in Ukraine.
