Business news from Ukraine

KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company SKF Ukraine (Lutsk, the former Lutsk Bearing Plant), one of the largest bearing producers in Ukraine, tentatively saw UAH 392.75 million in net profit in 2015, and it was 2.4 times up from a year ago.

According to the materials to the agenda of a general meeting of the company’s shareholders scheduled for April 14, undistributed profit as of January 1, 2016 reached UAH 602.097 million (UAH 272.63 million as of January 1, 2015).

As reported, in 2014, the company saw an almost four times rise in net profit in 2014, to UAH 165.5 million.

Last year the company halved its current liabilities to UAH 111 million and long-term liabilities fell by 15%, to UAH 25.8 million.

Total bills receivable slightly grew to UAH 148.68 million, and assets rose by 25.4%, to UAH 1.056 billion.

Equity capital rose by almost 56%, to UAH 919 million.

The number of employees slightly decreased – by 10, to 1,206.

SKF Ukraine produces bearings and components.

In the middle of 2014, the company started cooperating with SKF Turkey, shipping products to two official distributors – UNLU TEKNIK and OZIHLAS, and in a year exports to the Turkish market grew by several times.

As of Q4 2015, Sweden’s Aktiebolaget SKF held 99.8917% in SKF Ukraine.

KYIV. March 10 (Interfax) – Economic cooperation was highlighted at the negotiations held in Ankara on Wednesday, the Ukrainian presidential press service has said.

“We have agreed to boost negotiations on a free trade area agreement and a number of other bilateral documents, including an avoidance of double taxation agreement and an agreement on the mutual protection of investments,” the press service quoted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying.

“We have invited Turkey to take active part in privatization processes,” Poroshenko said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held in Ankara on Wednesday after bilateral negotiations.

According to Poroshenko, Ukraine and Turkey will be expanding cooperation in international multimodal and container transit and will be searching for other efficient logistic solutions.

The sides pledged to step up their involvement in bilateral and multilateral energy projects and to promote cooperation in tourism, for instance, to provide Turkish resort discounts for Ukrainian nationals, the press service said.

Poroshenko thanked the Turkish president for the assistance to Ukraine and mentioned a $50 million loan agreement signed in February during a visit of the Turkish prime minister to Kyiv.

The Turkish president reiterated the promise of $10 million for Ukrainian humanitarian needs and urged the international community to bolster assistance to Ukraine.

KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bosch as part of developing the Bosch Service chain plans to authorize 15 new servicing stations and up to 30 partners under the Bosch Module program in 2016 (15 new servicing stations and 27 partners under the Bosch Module program in 2015), the company said in a press release.

The company said that as of early 2016, the Bosch Service chain united 111 servicing stations (including 17 Bosch Diesel Service/Bosch Diesel Centers) and 103 Bosch Module partners.

“These are good results that were beyond our expectations and plans. Bosch auto parts sales via the Bosch Service chain in hryvnias grew by 44% compared to 2014,” the press service said, citing Oleksandr Lizun, Bosch Automotive Aftermarket Head in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Transcaucasus and Central Asia.

The company believes that the strategically important result for the development of the Bosch Diesel chain is the launch of the Bosch QualityScan project to control the quality of repair of diesel elements at Bosch authorized servicing stations. A total of 14 diesel stations out of 17 joined the project.

Now Common Rail injectors and fuel injection pump assemblies repaired at Bosch Diesel Service/Bosch Diesel Centers are labeled by a sticker with a matrix code that allows receiving repair information online.

Lizun said that popularity of the chain has grown thanks to high trust of car owners to the quality of Bosch products, the smart policy of the sales department and cooperation with distributors, as well as the incentive programs launched in 2015.

Along with a fall in demand on new cars, car dealers have focused on the automotive aftermarket services and some of them opened Bosch Service stations to provide automotive aftermarket services.

This year it is planned to boost sales of auto parts in the euro equivalent.

Bosch plans to introduce the online application for servicing at the service stations and online business training system for Bosch Service sellers and service specialists.

Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of solutions and services.

KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and the U.S. plan to expand cooperation on the market of space services, the press service for the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has reported.

The SSAU reports that the meeting between SSAU Chairman Liubomyr Sabadosh and representatives of the American companies participating in the U.S. space services market and working on contracts with NASA, which took place in Kyiv last week, addressed the possibilities of expanding bilateral cooperation in the sector.

“The parties reached an agreement to sign a joint document for the purpose of expanding the possibilities for involving Ukrainian companies, establishments, research institutes and universities in joint projects with the U.S. on the space services market within the framework of cooperation with CRDF Global,” the report says.

The document is expected to be signed at the meeting of the Ukrainian-U.S. working group on cooperation in the sphere during the visit by Sabadosh to the U.S., which is scheduled for May, the press service has reported.

The U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF Global) is a non-profit organization. It was founded in 1995 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the decision of the Congress for the purpose of promoting international technological cooperation.

Sabadosh has recently the parties will continue negotiations on bilateral cooperation in the sphere of rocket engine-building during the visit to the U.S. in May. Among the possible partnership formats is the creation of a joint venture.

According to earlier reports, the U.S. plans to fully stop using Russian RD-180 engines, which are now used by the rocket Atlas 5 of the U.S. United Launch Alliance (ULA)., by 2019 due to the restrictions imposed on military-technical cooperation with Russia by the Congress in 2014. The supply of RD 180 engines, which are installed on new rocket Antares for the ISS, is now limited to the civilian sphere. Among the participants in the tender fort the development of engines to replace the Russian RD 190, which the U.S. Air Force announced in June 2015, was Ukraine’s design and construction bureau Pivdenne (Dnipropetrovsk) with its new liquid RD 815.

The U.S. is now intensifying the implementation of the program to create the new generation rocket Vulcan for the U.S. Air Force. Under the contract that ULA and the Pentagon have recently signed, the project is to be implemented by the end of 2019. Under the contract, the U.S. Aerojet Rocketdyne is to ensure the development of a new AR1 to replace the RD 180 before the end of 2019.