KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Ukrtelecom has started the technical modernization of its network in Lviv, in which it will invest UAH 400 million.
According to a company press release, as part of modernization the length of the optical network will be increased to 700 km. The company will also install 450 active modern stations instead of 36 obsolete automatic telephone stations.
The company said modernization will begin with the districts of Mayorivka, Novy Lviv and the central part of the city. When it is completed, about 160,000 subscribers in Lviv will get access to the Internet under the ADSL technology at a speed of 20 Mbps, high-speed VDSL Internet at a speed of up to 50 Mbps and the possibility of laying optical cable to the apartment or office that will provide Internet access of up to 1 Gbps.
Ukrtelecom is the largest fixed-line operator in the country. It promotes 3G mobile communications.
The ultimate owner of Ukrtelecom is SCM Group of businessman Rinat Akhmetov.
KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – BM Bank (Kyiv) has increased charter capital by 2.01 times, to UAH 3.28 billion through an additional issue of shares, according to a press release from the bank.
According to the report, the bank’s shareholders made the decision on November 3, 2016, while on November 11 participants in share placement paid UAH 1.65 billion for the bank’s shares.
“Purchase of shares for capital increase was carried out at the expense of the bank shareholders’ own funds. The decision to hold capital increase was made as part of the overall strategy of the development of BM Bank and the recapitalization program,” the document says.
As reported, BM Bank shareholders at a general meeting on September 27-29 decided to increase charter capital to UAH 3.381 billion by issuing additional shares, but failed to realize recapitalization plans.
BM Bank was founded in 2005. VTB got control over the bank after the purchase of Russia’s Bank of Moscow.
BM Bank ranked 38th among 108 operating banks in the country in terms of total assets as of July 1, 2016 (UAH 3.031 billion), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The new passenger car market in Ukraine in 2017 could expand by 20-35% compared to 2016, analysts from Atlant-M automobile holding have said.
According to the presentation of the holding at a roundtable of the European Business Association (EBA), the market could grow thanks to postponed demand. Ukrainians have not purchased expensive goods for almost two years due to the unstable economic and political situation in the country.
“Before economic crisis and hostilities in Ukraine more than 200,000 cars a year were sold in Ukraine. This is 3.5 times more than now. In 2017, sales could rise by 35% on the current level,” Director General of the Ukrainian Association of Automobile Importers and Dealers (VAAID) Oleh Nazarenko said.
Inflation and the hryvnia exchange rate inflation on the cost of cars, as well as amendments to legislation, in particular, the reduction of the imports duty by 1% and cut excise duty rates on used cars.
According to the holding, in January-October 2016 new passenger car sales in Ukraine totaled 49,562, and this was 38% up year-over-year.
New passenger cars’ share of the total automobile market in Ukraine is only around 11%, while the share of used cars was 2.4%. Internal resale has a lion’s share of the market – 396,165 cars.
Atlant-M anticipates that used car sales would expand in the future thanks to amendments to Ukrainian legislation made in 2016.
KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Belarus increased petroleum and diesel fuel supplies to Ukraine by 48% or 962,000 tonnes in January through September 2016, to 2.966 million tonnes, Commercial Director of CJSC Belarusian Oil Company (BelOil) Sergey Grib said at the Petroleum Ukraine conference organized by A-95 Consulting Group in Kyiv on Wednesday.
BelOil, in particular, shipped 2.934 million tonnes of petroleum and diesel fuel.
Grib said that Belarus’ share of total petroleum and diesel fuel imports to Ukraine reached 63% compared to 43% year-over-year.
He said that in January-September 2016 diesel fuel shipments from Belarus to Ukraine grew by 37.3% or 558,000 tonnes, to 2.053 million tonnes (2.033 million tonnes delivered by BelOil).
Belarus’ share of total diesel fuel imports to Ukraine was 57% compared to 44% year-over-year.
Petroleum shipments from Belarus to Ukraine grew by 79% or 403,000 tonnes, to 913,000 tonnes (901,000 tonnes delivered by BelOil). Belarus’ share of total petroleum imports to Ukraine was 82% compared to 43% year-over-year.
Shipments of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Mozyr Oil Refinery (Belarus) to Ukraine rose by 4% or 2,872 tonnes, to 75,041 tonnes. Bitumen supplies soared by 2.4 times (133,298 tonnes), to 228,767 tonnes, and fuel oil supplies skyrocketed by 7.3 times or 196,039 tonnes, to 226,920 tonnes.
KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Austrian investment banker Uwe Christian Eschner has said that he seeks to acquire a large stake in Investbank (Odesa).
According to a report in the information disclose system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market, the banker intends to acquire 45.55 million of the shares with a face value of UAH 58.305 million. This is 65.7% of the charter capital as of October 1, 2016.
Investbank was founded in 1992.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of June 7, 2016, its largest shareholders were Oleksandr Nezvinsky (directly 19.9649%, indirectly 24.0455% via Bab-invest LLC), Nika Teplits (indirectly 41.2577% % via Tesa LLC), Ihor Teplits (directly 5.7264%), Serhiy Yablonsky (indirectly 3.7529% via Agro-Invest Ukraine) and Tamara Nezvinska (directly 2.353%).
The bank ranked 76th among 100 operating banks as of October 1, 2016, in terms of total assets worth UAH 410.2 million, according to the NBU.
KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – McKinsey & Company will develop a “roadmap” for the first phase of the updated Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2035.
Such a preliminary agreement was achieved at a meeting of the steering committee to coordinate work on the preparation of the Energy Strategy 2035 under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Kistion.
According to his press service, the previous draft strategies prepared by the National Institute for Strategic Studies and the Razumkov Centre were presented as well, while the participants discussed the possibility of uniting the documents to finalize the strategy.
“The development of this document is necessary for the sustainable development of the energy sector of Ukraine. We have to see our objective in the medium term and understand the ways to achieve it,” Kistion said.
According to him, applications to the main document, the so called roadmaps, will be developed for separate stages defined in the strategy.
