KYIV. Oct 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and metal group, sold 38% of its products on the European market in value terms with Ukraine accounting for 21%, the Middle East and Northern Africa – 20% and the CIS – 11%.
According to an unaudited consolidated financial report, revenue from sales was $1.213 billion in Europe, up 27% and $669 on the Ukrainian market. In the Middle East and Northern Africa revenue was $628 million, 20% of total sales; in South-East Asia – $74 million (2%); in North America – $205 million (6%) and in the CIS – $348 million (11%).
Cost of sales rose 34% year-on-year to $3.006 billion.
The Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) and the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency announced the launch of a joint information product – an English-language digest called Ukraine. Open4Business. The project is designed to help attract foreign investors to the country, introducing them to the Ukrainian economic agenda. A memorandum of cooperation was signed between the KIEF and Interfax-Ukraine to implement the project.
Starting from July 2017, a new issue of Ukraine. Open4Business in English is published twice a month on the KIEF website. It is also emailed to KIEF participants, leading global and European chambers of commerce and industry, investment banks, mass media, and other key players of the international economic community.
“KIEF’s important mission is to promote international dialogue on burgeoning investment climate in Ukraine. The digest will be one of the tools of such promotion, so we are glad to join forces with the country’s largest news agency,” Yuriy Pyvovarov, CEO of the Kyiv International Economic Forum, said.
Oleksandr Martynenko, Director of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency, commented: “Interfax-Ukraine produces high-quality, up-to-date, unbiased information products that are necessary for doing business here. Ukraine. Open4Business will be providing exactly such information to foreign investors who have a deficit of information about the points of investment in Ukraine.” From Interfax-Ukraine the project will be supervised by its Deputy Director Maxim Urakin.
According to Urakin, the joint product will become a platform for promoting Ukraine as a profitable market for investors from around the world. The demand for such a product will be analyzed in the course of the project, and, if necessary, other language versions may be added. Launch of the digest comes on the eve of the fourth KIEF, to be held in the capital of Ukraine on October 6-7, 2017.
The keynote of KIEF 2017 will be the challenges of the new economic reality for Ukraine as an integral member of the global community. The forum will feature renowned economists and influential representatives of public and financial sectors, including the governments of Ukraine and other countries, members of the European Commission, top managers of the EBRD and the EIB, owners of companies and CEOs of corporations.
Please, follow the news on the forum’s website and on the official Facebook page. Interfax-Ukraine News Agency has been an information provider on Ukraine’s political and economic information market since 1992. Since then, the agency has earned a reputation of the most reliable and competent supplier of timely and objective information. News reports from Ukraine are available to subscribers in almost every country in the world through the distribution channels of Interfax. Currently, the agency markets more than 50 information products on political, financial and economic subjects in four languages (Ukrainian, Russian, English and German).
Interfax-Ukraine is the official representative and partner of the American international group of companies Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) that supplies commercial, financial and marketing information to enhance its customers’ knowledge of their own customers and to minimize their commercial and credit risks. By uncovering truth and meaning from data, Dun & Bradstreet connects its customers with the prospects, suppliers, clients and partners that matter most. en.interfax.com.ua Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) is a permanently operating venue for the formation of Ukrainian economic development strategy. It is aimed to set up a dialogue between experts, businesses and government, borrowing the best international practices, creating a road map for the development and promotion of the conversion of ideas into real action. www.forumkyiv.org/en
KYIV. Oct 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – AXA Insurance has launched the Transparent Feedback innovative project allowing the company’s clients with voluntary car insurance or KASKO, obligatory insurance of civil liability of vehicle owners or OSAGO policies at once assess the quality of settling insurance events using 5 point-scale, the company has said in a press release.
AXA Group has become the first insurer in the world which launched the initiative of systematizing and publishing assessments and feedbacks of clients. Thanks to the global initiative of transparent feedback, AXA clients now can express their opinion and assess the products and services on the main websites of the group all over the world.
According to the results of the pilot project conducted in Ukraine from June through October 2017, AXA Insurance received 4.7 points from its clients and was awarded with silver quality mark. 92.7% of respondents positively assessed the operations of the company.
eKomi The Feedback Company, Europe’s premiere and largest independent provider of transaction-based reviews & ratings, administrates feedbacks for AXA Insurance. More than 14,000 companies leverage eKomi’s social commerce solution.
AXA Insurance is part of AXA international financial group (France), which has been presented in the insurance market of Ukraine since 2007.
KYIV. Oct 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Businessmen from Iran are interested in leasing of Ukrainian farmland for planting wheat, corn, soybeans, rapeseeds and other crops, according to a posting on the website of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine.
“Members of the delegation are interested in involvement in exterritorial agriculture – leasing of farmland for planting wheat, corn, soybeans, rapeseeds and other crops. The initial figure for leasing is 5,000 ha. The ambitious project is intended to provide the Persian Gulf market with agricultural products, as there is a high need in them on this market,” the chamber said after a meeting of its leaders with a delegation from Iran.
The sides also discussed the possibility of buying agricultural companies and create joint ventures with Ukrainian partners. In addition, Iran is interested in purchase of finished products.
The chamber said that a total of 40 companies with Iranian capital are registered in Ukraine now. The share of Ukrainian food exported to Iran exceeds 60% of their total exports. Currently Iran is the active importer of Ukrainian grain.
KYIV. Oct 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli believes that improvement of business climate and rule of law is obligatory for attracting investment in the country.
“I insist on the fact that for us, tariffs and quotas are not the main obstacle to trade. The main obstacle today… are norms and standards… there is a need, obviously, to improve the business climate,” he said speaking at the 4th Kyiv International Economic Forum on Friday, October 6.
Mingarelli said that Ukraine has fantastic assets that are interesting for investors.
“Still any investor hesitates to invest in Ukraine. Why? Because the risks are too high. Which kind of risk? The risk which is linked to the absence of the rule of law,” the diplomat said.
The ambassador said that every week European companies in Ukraine face the harassment from law enforcement agencies and raids. European companies do not trust courts because of the high level of corruption in the justice.
“If we manage to establish a decent level of the rule of law in this country, foreign companies, including EU ones, will rush to invest in Ukraine, because Ukraine has so many assets,” he said.
KYIV. Oct 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The multi-sector holding OKKO Group, which includes the OKKO filling station chain (Galnaftogaz Concern), intends to import natural gas for the needs of own businesses and for selling it on the Ukrainian market, planning first supplies from Poland this month.
“The current liberalization gives us a chance of not only starting in this business successfully, but also becoming a noticeable player on the Ukrainian gas market,” OKKO Group Vice President Yuriy Kuchabsky said last week.
He said that the group wants to use experience accumulated during the imports of fuel in the new business and a large database of clients in Ukraine.
OKKO said that the company has received a license from the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) and held negotiations with potential suppliers.
OKKO seeks to switch to gas purchase directly at the European gas hubs in the future.
According to the press release, the group will offer a price package for natural gas and fuel. The company is mulling sales of gas via the ProZorro e-procurement system.
OKKO incorporates over 10 various businesses in production, trade, construction, insurance, servicing and other sectors.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Goldman Sachs, Horizon Capital, Renaissance Capital, Genesis Asset Managers, LLP and other companies are shareholders and institutional investors in the holding.
