KYIV. July 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The starting price of licenses for the launch of a 4G network in Ukraine is estimated at UAH 6.3 billion, Oleksandr Zhyvotovsky, the head of the National Commission for Communications Regulation (NCCR), has said
“The budget should receive significant sums from the sale of licenses. The initial cost of licenses, which we propose to the government for approval, will amount to a total of UAH 6.3 billion,” he said at a government meeting.
Zhyvotovsky specified the cost of licenses for the launch of 4G communications in the range of 2600 MHz will be UAH 2.3 billion, 1800 MHz some UAH 4 billion.
“The licenses should be sold at a reasonable price. And the only way to justify the price is to sell through an open tender. Such a sale should stimulate further investments in Ukraine, while operators, who will buy 4G licenses, should invest in the development of infrastructure in future,” the NCCR head added.
KYIV. July 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Nika-Tera marine terminal (Mykolaiv), part of Group DF belonging to Dmytro Firtash, in January-May 2017 handled 1.97 million tonnes of cargo, which is 74% more than in January-May 2016.
The press service of Group DF told Interfax-Ukraine that grain handling totaled 65% (1.289 million tonnes) of entire handling, that for bulk cargo – 28% (556,100 tonnes) and chemicals and mineral fertilizers – 6% (124,600 tonnes).
In January-May Nika-Tera accepted 114 bulk carriers.
IN May, the terminal handled 240,800 tonnes of freight, including 140,400 tonnes of grain (58%), 88,400 tonnes of bulk cargo (37%) and 11,800 tonnes of chemicals and mineral fertilizers (5%). In May, the enterprise accepted 15 vessels.
Transshipment of exported cargo in January-May totaled 229,000 tonnes (3% up year-over-year).
KYIV. July 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Poland’s LOT airline will increase the number of flights on the Warsaw-Odesa route to 14 each destination a week by the beginning of September.
LOT CEO Rafal Milczarski said at a press conference in Odesa on Friday that the number of flights will be gradually increased, starting from July 19.
He said that the new schedule would allow Odesa residents to use the flights from a hub in Warsaw and fly to 70 countries.
LOT’s Embaraer planes and Bombardier CRJ900 of Estonia’s Nordica airline will service the flights.
LOT Polish Airlines provide around 5 million passengers a year with almost 60 destinations all over the world via Warsaw.
KYIV. July 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Adjusted EBITDA of Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands), the parent company of the international vertically integrated mining and metals group Metinvest, for the first quarter of 2017 amounted to $402 million, which was 3.4 times more than the same period last year.
According to preliminary financial results, made public by the company on Friday evening, revenue increased by 44%, to $1.853 billion, capital investment grew by 91%, to $103 million.
KYIV. July 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Vesco (Druzhkivka, Donetsk region), uniting clay mining business of UMG investment company under control of SCM, has opened a representative office in Kyiv in relation to expansion of its operations.
The decision was made by the company’s supervisory board aiming at carrying out commercial, trade, intermediary, marketing and other activities and providing profit-making services.
The company also said that the supervisory board of Vesco on June 29 decided to raise an interest-free repayment financial assistance from its branch – private joint-stock company Vohneupornerud (Donetsk region) – in the amount of UAH 250 million until October 2, 2017.
Vesco on June 20 decided to provide an interest-free repayment financial assistance in the amount of UA H150 million to UMG Agro and UAH 200 million to UMG Trading until October 2, 2017.
The supervisory board of the company on June 30 decided to take an interest-free repayment financial assistance in the amount of UAH 25 million from Vohneupornerud until October 2, 2017.
On June 30, the board decided to provide an interest-free repayment financial assistance in the amount of UAH 150 million to UMG Agro until October 2, 2017 and UAH 150 million to UMG Trading.
The company’s board on June 30 decided to provide UAH 200 million of the interest-free repayment financial assistance to SCM until October 6, 2017.
KYIV. July 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – ICU investment group has launched Ukraine Recovery Fund to invest in Ukraine distressed assets and seeks to raise around $200 million to the fund, ICU Managing Director and Partner Makar Paseniuk has said.
“Fundraising is rather good. We want to raise around $200 million,” he told reporters in Kyiv last week.
Paseniuk said that the fund was registered in May 2017 on Cayman Islands.
He said that the fund will operate for seven years. The smallest sum for investment is $1 million.
He said that Ukraine Recovery Fund will focus on investment in medium- and large-sized businesses. The size of investment in one project is restricted with 20% of the fund capital. The key directions are agriculture, FMCG, food and specialized retail, mining and property.
Paseniuk said that ICU sees the Individuals Deposit Guarantee Fund, banks that are optimizing their portfolios, including international banks that want to remove ‘Ukrainian risk’ from their balance sheets, as key sellers of these distressed assets.
Asked about the expected yield, he said that expectations from these investments in the world are 15-20%, and for Ukraine the minimum figure for entering a project is 20%.
ICU Group was established in June 2006. It provides services for trade in securities, investment banking services, and manages the assets of joint investment institutions. It includes Investment Capital Ukraine LLC, AMC Investment Capital Ukraine, Bank Avangard and AMC Troika Dialog Ukraine (all based in Kyiv). Previously the co-owner and the head of the board of directors in the group was Valeriya Gontareva, whom, at the proposal of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the parliament approved at the post of head of the National Bank of Ukraine in June 2014.
Afterwards Gontareva sold her stake in ICU, while the main partners of the group remained Makar Paseniuk and Kostiantyn Stetsenko with the shares of 41.7%, as well as Oleksandr Valchishen and Volodymyr Demchyshyn, who headed the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, who own 6.58% and 9.99% respectively.
