Headquartered in Kyiv has acquired the Galeria Eden shopping center in Zgorzelec (Poland) with a gross area of 8,500 square meters from Poland’s DNB Assets Holdco, the press service of the Ukrainian fund reported on Wednesday. “During the year, Focus Estate Fund together with the Polish development partner Młyn Retail Park will carry out work to expand the retail area to 10,000 square meters and change the format of the shopping center to a retail park,” the fund said.
According to the fund, investments in the re-concept will amount to more than EUR 1.5 million. It will take about a year to complete the project.
According to the fund, the international company JLL became the managing company of the facility.
“Due to the successful location of the retail park directly on the border with Germany, we expect a significant increase in the flow of buyers from Germany. For this we invest in modern architectural solutions that will give a new life cycle to the facility, and through the increase in the retail area attract more tenants,” the fund said, quoting its managing partner Andriy Kozin.
According to the Focus Estate Fund, the facility is located in a large shopping cluster in the village directly on the border with Germany, next to the German city of Görlitz, a major cultural and industrial center of the country.
The anchor tenants of the shopping center are Jysk, Komfort, Abra Meble, Pepco and Takko Fashion.
As reported in October 2017, the Focus Estate Fund acquired Most Retail Park in Most (the Czech Republic) with a total area of 6,500 square meters. In 2016, the fund acquired Centro Ostrava Retail Park in the Czech Republic and Galeria Sandomierz in Poland. The company plans to invest about EUR 50 million within two or three years in the development of commercial medium-sized commercial property projects in Eastern Europe.
The Ukrainian subsidiary of A.P. Moeller-Maersk Group hopes that cargo flow from/to Ukraine would increase, the company said in a press release spread among journalists at a meeting of the first vessel of the ME3 service from Maersk in the TIS container terminal on Wednesday. “Maersk Line Ukraine annually delivers the flow of containers at the level of 200,000 TEU to Ukraine, while it is less than 1% of the total volume of transportation of the company around the world. However, the operator expects to increase cargo traffic,” the company said in the press release.
The company is confident that the cooperation of TIS with Maersk will be long-term and large-scale one.
“TIS has the best port and rail infrastructure in Ukraine, which is very important for our customers,” the press service of the company said, citing General Director of MaerskLine Ukraine Roman Koloyanov as saying.
As reported, ships of Denmark’s Maersk Line, a large global container operator, would not enter the Odesa maritime merchandise port from April 1, 2018.
Germany is ready to allocate EUR 10 million for projects of the Energy Efficiency Fund and EUR 4 million for the training of energy auditors and training of the Fund’s employees, Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Hennadiy Zubko has said. “The German government is ready to sign an agreement with IFC – International Finance Corporation – on adding additional EUR 10 million to the Multi-Donor Fund for co-financing the projects of the Energy Efficiency Fund of Ukraine,” Zubko wrote on his Facebook page.
He also said that the German government had agreed on the implementation of the project of technical assistance to Ukraine in the training of professional energy auditors and training of the Fund’s employees in the amount of EUR10 million.
As earlier reported, the Cabinet coordinated a joint program with the EU for financing the Energy Efficiency Fund in the amount of EUR 268 million. According to the Ministry of Regional Development’s press service, EU assistance in 2018 will be EUR 50 million, in 2019 – EUR 54 million. The press service also recalled that the financing of the Energy Efficiency Fund from the state budget will be UAH 1.6 billion in 2018.
The welding electrode manufacturer PJSC PlasmaTec (Vinnytsia) saw a 38% rise in electrode production and sales in 2017, to over 40,000 tonnes, according to a company financial report. “This is the highest figure among manufacturers of welding electrodes of Ukraine and Belarus,” the company said. At the same time, the increase in production and sales relates to the implementation of the program for the renewal of fixed assets: in 2017, more than UAH 98.5 million was invested in production (in 2016 – UAH 109.4 million), including UAH 75.77 million for modernization and purchase of real estate (UAH 35.37 million), and UAH 22.75 million – for the purchase of new equipment and modernization (UAH 74 million).
According to the report, the consolidated net income of PJSC PlasmaTec increased by 43.5% in 2017, to UAH 1.335 billion, the net profit coincides with the earlier announced preliminary UAH 143.86 million (almost doubled on 2016).
The main rivals of the company are Paton Welding Plant, Vistec LLC and BaDM LLC. The enterprise’s products are sold through a wholesale network in 19 regions of Ukraine, through intermediaries in Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Lithuania, Belarus, Romania, Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan. This year PlasmaTec plans, in particular, to expand the geography of sales in the EU countries, as well as in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
The total cost of investment projects in the Ukrainian agricultural sector as of early 2018 was estimated at almost UAH 41.3 billion, according to a posting on the website of the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine. The ministry said that, a total of 474 investment projects are being implemented in agriculture, including 23.6% in the grain and industrial crops processing and storage segment, 12.4% in the pig breeding segment and 12.2% in the vegetable and fruit storage segment.
The main source of financing of capital investment are own funds of producers (74.3%). The cost of investment projects varies from UAH 100,000 to UAH 9.6 billion.
The largest number of investment projects is being implemented in Poltava (69), Lviv (64), Vinnytsia (48), Chernivtsi (43) and Cherkasy (41) regions.
The ministry anticipates that the implementation of these projects would create some 16,000 new jobs.
As of January 1, 2017, a total of 380 investment projects were implemented in Ukraine in agriculture. Their aggregate cost was UAH 27.9 billion.
Enterprises of the Ukrainian space industry exported about 50% of manufactured products and services in 2017, the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has reported. According to a report posted on the website of the agency, in the total volume of sales of the industry’s goods and services worth UAH 4.7 billion, the share of exports amounted to 49.3%, or 8.1% more than in 2016.
According to the press service, the share of exports to the U.S., EU countries and other countries amounted to 92.9%, or UAH 2.11 billion, in total exports.
Export growth for the reporting period was demonstrated by export-oriented enterprises, in particular, Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise – 57.4%, Pavlohrad Chemical Plant – 139.7%, Pivdenne Design Bureau – 19.6%, and PJSC Hartron – 63%.
According to the agency, enterprises operating in the space industry increased production by 26.3% in 2017 year-over-year, to UAH 4.6 billion. Gross production grew by 22% and exceeded UAH 5.49 billion. The growth of sales at the end of the year amounted to 24%.
SSAU currently manages 26 enterprises and organizations of the space industry. The state budget for 2017 envisages UAH 2.91 billion for financing the space industry, or 14.2% less than in 2016. In the total amount of financing, 61.5% of the funds from the state budget’s general fund are envisaged for the fulfillment of debt obligations on previously attracted loans for the implementation of international industry projects.