Private joint-stock company Philip Morris Ukraine, a large tobacco company in Ukraine, plans to finish construction of a solid fuel boiler in September 2018 and switch its factory from gas to solid fuel.
Deputy Director General Ihor Kroshko said that investment in the project is around UAH 63 million.
“Any kind of granular biofuel can be used as a fuel, which will allow reducing greenhouse gas emissions several times. The boiler’s productivity is 6 tonnes of steam per hour and the capacity is 3.8 megawatts. The new boiler-house will completely cover the needs of the factory,” the company said.
Savings on the switch from gas to renewable energy, according to Philip Morris Ukraine, will be about UAH 15 million per year.
Kroshko said that construction of additional warehouses for storage of non-tobacco materials is also planned.
In 2017, investments in the factory exceeded $11 million (expansion of production facilities, modernization of storage facilities, launch of innovative products and new formats for export and domestic markets). At the same time, the total amount of investment in production facilities during the operation of affiliated companies Philip Morris International (PMI) in Ukraine amounted to $348 million.
Estonia’s startup Taxify, which designed a ride-sharing platform and first entered Ukraine in September 2016, has decided to re-launch the service in Kyiv and hope to develop in other large cities of Ukraine in 2018.
“The first launch of the service in Kyiv took place in 2016 according to the franchise agreement with Estonian entrepreneurs, and now the company will restart the project with its own local team,” the company said last week.
According to him, the possibilities of expanding the market and working in other large cities of Ukraine are also being studied.
According to Marcus Willig, CEO and co-founder of Taxify, the company has huge potential for growth in Ukraine. He said that over the past year the number of trips organized with the help of Taxify platform has grown 10-fold, and today more than 10 million people and 50,000 drivers use the company’s service in more than 25 countries.
To attract attention to the restart of the service, the company offers a 50% discount for passengers.
Speaking of competition, Taxify also claims to offer better relationships to drivers.
As reported, at the end of May 2018 Taxify reported that the company raised $175 million of financing and the company was valuated at $1 billion. Germany’s Mercedes-Benz-owner Daimler has taken a stake in Taxify in a funding round. Last year China’s Didi Chuxing, a rival of Uber, became an investor in the company.
According to FT, Didi also participated in the round, along with European venture capital fund Korelya Capital and TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus.
Daimler may roll the service into its moovel app, a step that would increase Taxify’s customer base by a quarter to 12.5 million.
Taxify was founded in 2013.
Public joint-stock company Ukrgazvydobuvannia and Germany’s BASF chemical concern have signed a three-year contract for supply of fuel additives for Shebel fuel, the press service of Ukrgazvydobuvannia has reported. Under the contract, two specially designed packages will be supplied: Keropur 3802 Shebel and Keropur DP Shebel. Keropur 3802 Shebel package is required to receive fuel with best purification behavior, and Keropur DP Shebel also has good purification behavior, it reduces foaming behavior and increases cetane number.
“The fuel additive packages allow saving on fuel consumption, have good corrosion resistant behavior and reduce engine deterioration,” the press service of Ukrgazvydobuvannia said.
Ukrgazvydobuvannia, which is wholly owned by NSJC Naftogaz Ukrainy, is a large gas processing company, which accounts for about 75% of total gas output in the country.
It operates Shebelynka gas refinery, Yablunivske department to process gas, Bazylivschyna condensate stabilization unit, and 19 filling stations in Kharkiv region. The latter sells fuel and liquefied gas of its own production. Shebelynka gas refinery started production of petrol and diesel fuel of Euro 5 emission standard in 2018.
The volume of insurance premiums received by insurers with foreign capital in January-March 2018 amounted to UAH 6.783 billion, which is UAH 1.761 billion, or 35%, more than for the same period in 2017, Member of the National Commission for State Regulation of Financial Services Markets Oleksandr Zaletov has told Interfax-Ukraine. According to him, as of March 31, 2018 some 60 insurance companies with foreign capital were registered in the insurance market of Ukraine, which is 20.5% of all registered insurers (292). Of these, 49 insurance companies carry out risk types of insurance and 11 insurance companies provide life insurance services. At the same time, the share of foreign capital in the charter capital of 26 insurance companies is 100% (21 non-life and 5 life insurers).
Foreign capital in the charter capital of insurers as of March 31, 2018 amounted to UAH 12.364 billion, while a year earlier the figure stood at UAH 3.553 billion, or 28.7% of the total paid-up charter capital of insurance companies.
Insurance companies that carry out risk types of insurance made up UAH 3.1 billion of foreign capital, while life insurers had UAH 452.6 million. The largest share in total foreign capital is made up by the capital of Cyprus (45.5%), Austria (15.9%), France (4.9%), Britain (3.4%), the United States (2.9%), the Netherlands (2.2%), and Bulgaria (2%).
Non-banking financial institutions of Ukraine in January-June 2018 paid profit tax in the amount of UAH 353.9 million to the national and local budgets, which is UAH 148.4 million or 72.2% more than a year ago, a member of the national commission for financial service markets regulation of Ukraine Oleksandr Zaletov has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The aggregate amount of the paid profit tax by non-banking financial institutions, according to the Treasury, exceeded the similar indicator of banks by 8.7%, or UAH 28.2 million,” he said.
He also said that the upward pace of fiscal revenues is associated with the growth of services provided by non-banking financial institutions.
In the first quarter of 2018, the following financial services were most popular: third-party liability insurance (94.7% increase), financial leasing (76.2%), pension contributions to private pension funds from individuals (34%), life insurance (30.6%), tourist insurance (26.8%), contributions to the construction financing funds (23.3%), medical insurance (21.7%), car insurance (20.9%), deposits in credit unions (14.7%) and loans granted by credit unions (7.3%).
In Zaletov’s opinion, if several years ago the driver of growth in non-banking financial markets was financial risk insurance and factoring, now growth is primarily related to the activation of financial services oriented to the social needs of the population. The further development of this segment will depend on the adoption of bill No. 8415 dated May 25, 2018 amending some laws of Ukraine regarding state regulation of financial services markets aimed at creating a systemic basis for the recovery and development of non-banking financial services markets in modern conditions.
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, INCREASE PROFIT, NON-BANKING, PAYMENT, TAX
