Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

GROUND HOUSEHOLD SOLAR PLANTS WITH CAPACITY OF UP TO 30 KV GUARANTEED FEED-IN TARIFF BY LATE 2019

The relevant Rada committee, when preparing the adopted law on green auctions for signature by the speaker, proposes making a clear definition of conditions for providing feed-in tariffs for all household solar power plants with a capacity of up to 30 kV, indicating that their owners are entitled to such a tariff until the end of 2019.
Oleksandr Dombrovsky, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada committee on fuel and energy complex, nuclear policy and nuclear safety, said on his Facebook page that he had sent a letter to Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy with a corresponding proposal.
According to him, in the process of technical and legal preparation of the law on green auctions, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, the main legal department of the Verkhovna Rada revealed inconsistencies that may lead to incorrect practice of its application. Thus, the law established the procedure for calculating feed-in tariffs for households operating solar plants of up to 50 kV, provided they are placed on roofs, facades of buildings and other housing structures. However, he did not foresee the procedure for calculating the tariff for all household solar plants with a capacity of up to 30 kV until the end of 2019.
To eliminate this gap, the procedure of Article 131 of the regulations may be applied, which allows for clarification of the wording of the voted law, the committee believes.

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BORYSPIL AIRPORT SEES RISE IN PASSENGER FLOW IN JAN-APRIL

The Boryspil international airport (Kyiv) in January-April 2019 increased passenger flow by 17.2% from a year ago, to 3.81 million, the press service of the airport has told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the passenger traffic on international flights amounted to 3.493 million people (growth by 18.3%), on domestic – 316,800 (growth by 6.5%).
In general, in January-April, the airport serviced 30,559 flights (an increase of 10.1%), including 26,480 international and 4,079 domestic.
For the first four months of 2019, on regular flights, the Boryspil airport serviced 3.142 million people (a rise of 22% over the same period in 2018), on irregular flights – 667,790 people (at the level of the same period last year).
The number of transfer passengers since the beginning of 2019 amounted to 964,760, which is 6.2% higher than the figure for the same period of 2018. The share of transfer passengers in the total passenger traffic was 25.3% (a decrease of 2.7 percentage points).
In April of this year, the passenger traffic of Boryspil amounted to 1.155 million people, which is 22.4% more than in April last year.
Passenger flow on international flights in April was 1.07 million passengers (an increase of 24.7%), on domestic flights – 84,800 (a decrease of 0.6%).
In general, in April, the airport served 8,661 flights (an increase of 14.7%), including 7,592 international and 1,069 domestic.

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HARVEST, QUALITY OF SUGAR BEETS TO BE LOWER THAN PROJECTED DUE TO HEAVY RAINS

The harvest and quality of sugar beets in 2019 will be lower than expected due to extra moisture of upper layers of soil and high air humidity caused by heavy rains, the press service of the Ukrtsukor national association of sugar producers has said.
According to the association, rains washed out part of the sugar beet crops, and high humidity contributes to the development of plant diseases. In addition, heavy rains are washing out nitrogen from the soil, as a result of which the growth and development of sugar beet deteriorates.
“Taking into account all the factors, we can predict that the sugar content and yield will be lower than the expected level, which, in turn, will affect the production of sugar. According to our forecasts, this year we will be able to get within 1.1-1.2 million tonnes of sugar. This volume can create a certain shortage in the market,” the association said.
As reported, according to the previous forecast of Ukrtsukor, the production of sugar was projected at the level of 1.3-1.4 million tonnes (a fall of 23-29% compared with 2018).
According to the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine, as of May 13, 2019, 217,400 hectares of sugar beet were sown (88.9% of the forecast).

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NBU STARTS STRESS TESTING OF 29 BANKS

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has started the second stage of the resilience assessment of banks – the asset quality review (AQR) confirmed by an external auditor and started stress testing of 29 banks, according to a survey of the banking sector posted on the website of the NBU.
According to preliminary estimates, the number of banks requiring capital injections in the baseline and negative stress test scenario will decrease compared to the previous year, the central bank said in the survey.
As the regulator recalled, by the end of 2019, banks need to form a capital conservation buffer in the amount of 0.625%. It will become mandatory for each bank from the beginning of 2020, when the first stage of the introduction of the capital conservation buffer will begin. In the future, the size of the buffer will increase gradually every year and will reach 2.5% from January 1, 2023. The formation of the corresponding buffer will ensure that banks create a stock of capital in excess of the minimum requirements. In the future, this will provide an opportunity of absorbing the possible losses that may arise in a general economic recession, without violating the capital adequacy ratio.
The NBU also announced that during the second quarter the method for determining systemically important banks will be changed and an updated list of such banks will be made public. In the future, the NBU will require them to form a buffer of system importance.
As reported, in 2019, 29 banks that account for 93% of the banking system will undergo stress testing in addition to the AQR. These 29 banks were rated as the largest ones as of November 1, 2018 by three indicators: risk-weighted assets, retail deposits, and retail loans.
The following banks will be tested: state-owned PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank, private Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, FUIB, UkrSibbank, OTP Bank, Credit Agricole Bank, Pivdenny Bank, TAScombank and Kredobank. The list also includes Sberbank, ProCredit Bank, Ukrsotsbank (the results of stress testing for the bank will be assessed taking into account the dynamics of its joining Alfa-Bank), Megabank, Credit Dnipro Bank, Universal Bank, A-Bank, Prominvestbank, Idea Bank, Bank Vostok, MTB Bank, Bank of Investments and Savings, Industrial Bank, Bank Globus, International Investment Bank and Bank Forward.
According to the resilience assessment findings, the regulator will determine the required levels for the regulatory capital adequacy ratio (N2) and the common equity adequacy ratio (N3). The required level of the capital adequacy ratios will be estimated in order to ensure banks’ compliance with the minimum requirements of N2 and N3 according to the baseline scenario (10% and 7%, respectively) and less strict requirements to the said ratios under the adverse scenario (5% and 3.5%, respectively) throughout the entire forecast period.
In 2018, the NBU has launched resilience assessment of banks that includes stress testing a list of banks defined by the NBU.

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