Business news from Ukraine

The Slovak company Nafta intends to take part in the development of Yuzivska deposit (Kharkiv and Donetsk regions), the press service of the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine has said, with reference to the head of the Nafta exploration and production department, Jozef Levoca.
“The representatives of Nafta [at a meeting with the association] told about their plans to participate in the project on implementing the production sharing agreement and readiness to drill at least 15 new wells on Yuzivska site and invest up to $200 million in exploration in the first five years,” the association said.
As reported, the leading Slovak oil and gas company Nafta and Cub Energy (the United States) intend to drill their first well on Uzhgorod gas deposit in 2018. Nafta acquired 50% in Uzhgorod gas area from Cub Energy in summer 2016.

HarvEast agroholding this year will allocate 50 hectares of its areas for the cultivation of hybrid maize, provided by Maisadour seed company, director general of the holding Dmytro Skorniakov has said.
“Of all the irrigated areas, one-third is allocated for sunflower, 150 hectares for hybrid maize, of which 50 hectares for Maisadour. The rest of the irrigated areas are for hybridization of rapeseeds, wheat, beans,” he said during the signing of agreements on cooperation with Maisadour in Kyiv.
The companies also reported on the agreement on cooperation under the license contract after two years of negotiations. This agreement will allow HarvEast to grow its own hybrids on the genetic basis of the French company. HarvEast is an agricultural holding. Its core business is crop production (growing wheat, sunflower, barley, perennial grasses, and corn) and dairy farming. HarvEast Holding was established on March 10, 2011 on the basis of the agricultural assets of Mariupol-based PJSC Illich steel mill (Donetsk region). The shareholders of HarvEast are System Capital Management and Smart-Holding.

The leading Ukrainian mobile communications operator Kyivstar plans to buy two out of three additional lots at the 4G auction for the 1800 MHz frequencies spectrum, Kyivstar President Peter Chernyshov has said.
“We plan to buy two out of three lots 5 MHz each. We have enough money for this,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Chernyshov also said that the tender for issuing 4G licenses for the 1800 MHz spectrum is expected to take place on March 6.
As reported, in December 2017, the National Commission for Communications and Informatization Regulation (NCCR) officially published an announcement about a tender to sell radio frequency licenses to introduce radio technology “International Mobile Telecommunications IMT” (4G, LTE, or Long Term Evolution) in the radio frequency bands 1710-1785 MHz, 1805-1880 MHz.
The tender is conducted consistently on six lots in the following order of radio frequency bands in all regions of Ukraine: lot No. 1 with 1710-1725/1805-1820 MHz, lot No. 2 with 1725-1750/1820-1845 MHz, lot No. 3 with 1750-1770/1845-1865 MHz, lot No. 4 with 1770-1775/1865-1870 MHz, lot No. 5 with 1780-1785/1875-1880 MHz, and lot No. 6 with 775-1780/1870-1875 MHz.
The minimum payment for each lot (without taking into account the cost of conversion of the radio frequency resources of Ukraine) is as follows: UAH 795 million for lot No. 1, UAH 1.325 billion for lot No. 2, UAH 1.060 billion for lot No. 3, UAH 265 million for lot No. 4, UAH 265 million for lot No. 5, and UAH 265 million for lot No. 6.
The cost of conversion is UAH 940.259 million.
The validity of licenses is 15 years.
The “big three” of Ukrainian mobile operators on February 7 paid UAH 2.456 billion for 80 MHz in the 2600 MHz band for the right to deploy 4G communication on them: lifecell purchased two lots totaling 30 MHz for UAH 909.25 million, Kyivstar three lots totaling 30 MHz for UAH 916.3 million, while Vodafone-Ukraine two lots for a total of 20 MHz for UAH 631 million.

Head of Kharkiv Regional State Administration Yulia Svitlychna and EU Ambassador to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli have agreed on EU assistance in the construction of a new oncology center in Kharkiv, according to a statement posted on the administration’s website on Wednesday, February 21.
“We have made a decision and will build a new ultra-modern oncology center, with good conditions for doctors and patients. This center should meet all European standards,” Svitlychna said.
According to the report, the assistance of European partners will concern the supply of equipment for a new oncology center.
According to Mingarelli, the EU is ready to support the project to build a cancer center in Kharkiv using the programs of the European Investment Bank.
We are working to improve the quality of services in the healthcare sector. We are ready to use the EIB resources to help you, Mingarelli said.
According to him, the European Union will continue to implement in the region a number of programs on assistance to small and medium-sized businesses, on the development of primary care, etc.
On February 21-22, Mingarelli is on a working visit to Kharkiv region.

Ukraine should focus on Turkish and Belarusian transit sea cargo flows to implement a cargo flow growth strategy, Head of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority Raivis Veckagans has said.
“If we compare a dynamics with ports in the world, then the volumes rarely grow in double digits. There are very few such regions. Even if we look at the powerful port countries, then we see that these figures are ambiguous and insignificant. The growth of the freight flow is good anyway, and the double-digit figure can be with a breakthrough in the development of the economy or in a crisis, with a stable pace of growth of less than 10%,” he told Interfax-Ukraine, explaining the insignificant increase in port transshipment in the country.
Veckagans said that the change in cargo flow towards the decline was due to the crisis, the loss of Russian transit and the Crimean ports, but the figure of last year with an increase of 1% is not bad.
“I think that investment projects will contribute to the development in this direction. Of course, the lion’s share is related to the country’s commodity flow, but we can implement these projects. We can work for the development and maintenance of inland waterways. We see that these are related freight flows, and if flows on inland waterways increase, this will boost the volumes in seaports. We should be aimed at Turkish, Belarusian transit flows for the implementation of the cargo flow growth strategy,” Veckagans said.
Commenting on state-owned stevedores and their efficiency, he said that if in 2015 the volume of transshipment of state-owned stevedores amounted to 489 million tonnes, then in 2017 it was 34.7 million tonnes. Last year’s decline was 12%.
“They simply cannot bear competition. I believe that the Ministry of Infrastructure and the government should support privatization and concession of state-owned stevedores so that it is possible to attract additional investment, new technologies to increase freight flows,” he said.