Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINE AND ISRAEL INITIATES FTA AGREEMENT – TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

Ukraine and Israel have technically initiated an agreement on the free trade area (FTA), Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said. “This is a technical but important procedural issue that enables us to conduct legal reconciliation of the text of the agreement for further translation it into three languages and prepare the agreement for signing,” she wrote in the Facebook social network on Friday. Mykolska said that before signing the agreement, the parties have no legal obligations.
As reported, Ukraine and Israel completed talks on the signing of the FTA agreement. The agreement foresees the annulment of import duties for 80% of industrial goods from Ukraine to Israel and some agricultural products within quotas. There will be a gradual cancellation of import duties during the transitional periods – three, five and seven years. After these terms end, the duties will be leveled to nil. A certain category of goods falls under partial liberalization.
In turn, Ukraine opens 70% of the industrial goods market for Israeli producers and also abolishes duties on a number of agricultural products immediately after the FTA agreement enters into force, for some products – within three or five years. In particular, Ukraine will partially reduce tariffs for certain seasonal vegetables and fruits from Israel.

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UKRNAFTA SEES PROFIT RISE BY 17.7 TIMES IN Q1, 2018

Ukrnafta saw net profit rise by 17.7 times (UAH 1.190 billion) in January-March 2018 compared to the same period last year, to UAH 1.261 billion. According to a company report in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, its net income for the first quarter of this year increased by 25.9%, to UAH 8.268 billion, gross profit by 49.6%, to UAH 4.819 billion.
As reported, Ukrnafta in 2017 reduced production of oil with gas condensate by 9.2% (139,000 tonnes) compared to 2016, to 1.379 million tonnes, gas by 14.8% (193 million cubic meters), to 1.108 billion cubic meters, production of liquefied gas by 13.4% (18,000 tonnes), to 116,000 tonnes.
Naftogaz Ukrainy owns a 50% plus one share stake in Ukrnafta, the former shareholders of PrivatBank (Kyiv) hold about 42% of the shares.

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UKRAINE INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES INCREASES NET INCOME BY 24% IN 2017

PrJSC Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv), the leading air carrier of the country, in 2017 increased net income by 24%, or UAH 4.273 billion, to UAH 22.103 billion, according to a company annual report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. According to him, net loss coincided with the earlier announced preliminary indicator of UAH 304.51 million against UAH 387.89 million net profit in 2016.
Gross profit last year fell by 9.7%, to UAH 1.699 billion, while operating loss amounted to UAH 638.09 million against an operating profit of UAH 31.21 million a year earlier. The report reads that last year the cost of fixed assets rose by 28.8%, to UAH 21.2 billion, in particular leased assets by 28.6%, to UAH 20.46 billion. The value of its net assets slightly decreased from “minus” UAH 2.26 billion to “minus” UAH 2.54 billion. Total liabilities at the end of last year amounted to UAH 954.4 million, including two bank loans for UAH 607.8 million with maturity in 2016 and free cash in the amount of UAH 260.9 million, declining by 14.6% over the year.
According to the report, Cypriot-based Ontobet Promotions Limited owns 25.8373% of the company shares, but the same company through the “connection” scheme with the participation of Capital Investment Project and Investment Projects Management (both based at the same address in Kyiv) controls the remaining 74.1627%.

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UKRAINIAN HEALTH MINISTRY: TWO MLN UKRAINIANS SIGN DECLARATIONS WITH DOCTORS AS PART ‘DOCTOR FOR EACH FAMILY’ CAMPAIGN

Two million patients have signed declarations with doctors over the first month of the campaign for choosing a primary care physician, titled “Doctor for Each Family,” the press service of the Ukrainian Health Ministry has reported. The most active are patients from Kharkiv region, where 230,600 declarations were signed, Kyiv region (225,000), Vinnytsia region (over 186,000), as well as Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions (177,700 and 168,000 respectively).
A total of 1,245 medical institutions providing primary health care have currently been connected to the e-health system. As many as 19,000 doctors can sign declarations with patients. A thousand doctors joined the system last week. According to the report, 73% of patients have already signed declarations with primary care physicians, 15% with therapists, and 12% with pediatricians. Ukrainians at the age of 40-64 years are most actively choosing doctors.

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INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION COURT ANNULS KEY PROVISIONS OF UKRNAFTA SHAREHOLDERS’ AGREEMENT

The London Court of International Arbitration on April 26 annulled key provisions of PJSC Ukrnafta’s shareholders agreement of 2010, the press service of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, which owns 50% plus one share in Ukrnafta, has said. “”The judges of the arbitration court have concluded that the key provisions of the shareholder agreement between Naftogaz and the companies of [Ihor] Kolomoisky on corporate governance of Ukrnafta are not subject to execution, since they contradict the binding provisions of the corporate legislation of Ukraine,” Naftogaz said.
In particular, the court cancelled Article 9 of the agreement that concerns the election of the chairman of Ukrnafta’s board from among the candidates proposed by minority shareholders (Kolomoisky’s companies). Also, the court overturned the provision according to which the minority shareholders shall nominate five of the 11 members of the supervisory board of Ukrnafta with a quorum of eight members of the board. “The Tribunal ruled that, in general, the shareholder agreement is applicable, although its key provisions on corporate governance of Ukrnafta are not enforceable,” Naftogaz concluded.
As reported, Naftogaz and Ukrnafta’s minority shareholders (the companies that are affiliated with the Privat Group, namely Littop Enterprises Limited, Bridgemont Ventures Limited, Bordo Management Limited, Balliotti Enterprises Limited, Renalda Investments Limited) in January 2010 entered into a shareholders’ agreement, which, in particular, determined the procedure for electing the chairman and members of the board, as well as the supervisory board and the required quorum for the country’s largest oil producer.
According to the document, the chairman of the board should be elected from the candidates proposed by the minority shareholders, and six of the 11 members of the supervisory board and its head should be nominated by Naftogaz. At the same time, the quorum required the presence of eight of the 11 members of the board, which at that time did not contradict the law on joint-stock companies. In March 2015, after the law was amended, the quorum for supervisory board meetings was reduced to a simple majority of votes.
In June 2015, Ukrnafta’s minority shareholders filed a lawsuit with the London arbitration court demanding that Naftogaz should adhere to the terms of the shareholder agreement, even though the rights of Naftogaz were restricted as those of a controlling shareholder, in comparison with the rights provided for by the current legislation. Naftogaz owns a 50% + 1 share in Ukrnafta, while a group of companies affiliated with the former shareholders of PrivatBank have about 42% of the shares.

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