KYIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Procter & Gamble (P&G) has invested over $100 million in modernization of a plant in Boryspil, Procter & Gamble Director General in Ukraine Dmytro Kiselev said at the 20th anniversary of the plant in Boryspil.
He said that today total investment of the company in Ukraine exceeded $300 million. P&G invested in development of production lines, the quality control system, boosting efficiency, modernization of facilities, replacement of equipment and introduction of modern IT technologies and innovations.
Kiselev said that since 2015 the non-waste production system has been introduced at the plant in Boryspil. The company plans to switch all plants of P&G to this system before 2020.
P&G Communications Director in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Ruslan Nozdryakov said that in autumn 2016 the company finished the long process of global restructuring, after which more than half of the brands were sold.
“The reason is that we want to focus on the areas where we are the best and which bring us large profit. Now we have around 60 brands in 10 key sectors. We have sold slightly over 120 brands. The brands that were left generated over 80% of profit,” he said.
Procter & Gamble started its operations in 1837. At present, the company is present on the markets in 180 countries. Its brands include Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Fairy, Always, Lenor, Oral-B, Olay, Tampax, Old Spice, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Fusion, Gillette, Mach3, Venus and Braun.
KYIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Sentio LLC, the manufacturer of fabric for mattresses (Radekhiv district of Lviv region) has launched production of Jacquard fabric for mattresses with a full production cycle, the press service of Lviv City Administration has reported.
According to the report, earlier this fabric was only imported from China, Turkey and the EU countries, and these production facilities are the sole facilities in Ukraine. It includes winding up of threads, weaving and the unique stage for Ukraine – fabric lamination.
Lviv City Administration Chairman Oleh Syniutka said that this production puts Ukraine at one level with famous global producers of Jacquard fabric for mattresses. Sentio will produce the fabric for IKEA.
The production capacity is around 1.5 million meters of lacing and around 100,000 meters of fabric a month.
A total of 30 jobs have been created, with 60 more in the works.
Sentio LLC with 100% Ukrainian investment was founded in 2009.
KYIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Nibulon (Mykolaiv), which owns the eponymous shipbuilding yard, intends to increase the number of ships built to 100 over the next four years, thus doubling its fleet in comparison with the existing figure.
According to the company’s press service, this was announced by its director general Oleksiy Vadatursky at the ceremony of the solemn launching of the next generation yacht Yuriy Makarov in Mykolaiv.
According to him, there are plans to build and launch two more such 121M vessels designed for operation in shallow water areas, including in the northern tributaries of the Dnipro River, Desna and Prypiat, by July 1, 2017. In addition, another non-self-propelled vessel will be built.
“Our fleet will consist of 60 vessels by July 1, and 65 ships by the end of the year. Every year we will produce 15-16 vessels up to 150 meters long. In the course of four years we intend to reach a figure of 100 ships and fully compensate for the fact that two shipbuilding plants in our city do not work,” Vadatursky noted.
KYIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Ukraine’s largest steel and iron ore producer Metinvest B.V.’s corporate family rating (CFR) to Caa2 from Caa3 and its probability of default rating (PDR) to Caa2-PD/LD from D-PD, reads a report on the rating agency’s’ website.
“Moody’s has also upgraded Metinvest’s national scale rating (NSR) to B1.ua from Caa3.ua. The outlook on the ratings is stable,” it reads.
Concurrently, Moody’s has withdrawn the Caa3 senior unsecured ratings assigned to Metinvest’s 10.25% notes due 2016 and 8.75% notes due 2018, and the (P)Caa3 senior unsecured rating assigned to Metinvest’s MTN program,” Moody’s experts stated.
“The upgrade of Metinvest’s CFR and PDR follows the completion of its debt restructuring, as announced on March 22, 2017, as a result of which the company is no longer in default on its debt obligations. Concurrently, Moody’s has appended the PDR with the limited default (/LD) designation, which reflects Moody’s view that the completed debt restructuring constitutes a distressed exchange under Moody’s definition of default,” they said.
“The completed debt restructuring includes the replacement of Metinvest’s three eurobond issues with a total outstanding amount of $1.197 million due in 2016-2018, which were in default, with a single eurobond issue of the same aggregated principal, due in 2021, and the replacement of Metinvest’s four pre-export facilities (PXF) of total outstanding $1.109 million due in 2015-2018, which were in default, with a single PXF of the same aggregated principal, due in 2021,” according to the document.
“Metinvest’s Caa2 CFR is constrained by Ukraine’s Caa2 country ceiling for foreign-currency debt. Despite Metinvest’s high volume of exports, the company remains directly exposed to Ukraine’s political, legal, fiscal, regulatory and operating environment, given that most of the company’s upstream and steel-making production facilities are located within Ukraine, although it generates only 25% of revenues from domestic sales,” it states.
“Metinvest’s rating also takes into account the loss of control over the company’s assets in the unstable regions in the east of Ukraine, which will reduce the company’s scale of operations, primarily in the steel segment; Moody’s view that Ukraine’s steel market has limited growth potential because of the continuing macroeconomic challenges and elevated event risks; and volatile prices for steel and feedstock,” the agency said.
“More positively, Metinvest’s rating reflects the modest contribution of assets located in the unstable regions in the east of Ukraine to Metinvest’s consolidated EBITDA (estimated by the company at less than 3% for 2017); the company’s integrated business model, with more than 300% self-sufficiency in iron ore, around 100% in coke and 40% in coking coal; proximity to main export markets and geographic diversification of assets and sales, as around 30% of Metinvest’s operating assets are located outside of Ukraine and the company derives around 75% of revenues from sales in international markets; the company’s healthy liquidity and long-term debt maturity profile following its completed debt restructuring; Moody’s estimation that the company’s leverage declined below 3.5x Moody’s-adjusted debt/EBITDA at year-end 2016 from 8.9x a year earlier, owing to EBITDA growth as a result of the increase in finished steel products output, recovery in steel and iron ore prices, rise in coking coal prices, hryvnia depreciation and cost reduction; moderate foreign-currency risk, as all of the company’s debt and 75% of its revenues is denominated in foreign currency; and the rating agency’s expectation that the company will pursue a conservative financial policy, generate a positive free cash flow and maintain robust financial metrics on a sustainable basis, assuming no major event-driven operational disruptions,” Moody’s added.
KYIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Over three million of Ukrainian citizens have already received biometric passports for traveling abroad, the head of the State Migration Service of Ukraine Maksym Sokoliuk has said.
“As of 9:00 a.m., today already 3.025 million citizens have received biometric documents for traveling abroad,” Sokoliuk said during an hour of questions to the government in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday.
As reported, at a meeting of the European Parliament on April 6, 521 European deputies voted “for” granting a visa-free regime for Ukrainians by the EU, 75 were “against” and 36 abstained.
LVIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – By late April French experts from Egis would select an optimal site for building a waste recycling plant in Lviv, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy has said.
“By late April French experts would finish analyzing all possible land parcels for building the waste recycling plant and select the concrete and most optimal place for its construction,” he said on April 7.
He said that Egis experts jointly with Ukrainian experts are finalizing work on technical specification of the plant.
“After the site is selected designing of blueprints with reference to the land parcel will start and the final step will be drafting of documents for announcing an international tender to build a first deep waste recycling plant in Ukraine,” he said.
Egis experts would present an emergency work plan for Hrybovychi landfill in two weeks.
As reported, the Lviv City Council and France’s Egis signed a memorandum, according to which the company will design a project on reclamation of the Hrybovychi landfill for Lviv and the project on the new waste recycling complex. A grant of the French government of EUR 650,000 will be used to finance the works.
