KYIV. Nov 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 200 million to the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine to support sustainable municipal transport infrastructure in 20 Ukraine’s municipalities.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the agreement was signed by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan and EIB Vice President Vazil Hudak in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman on November 11.
“This project is important for Ukrainian cities. It allows to considerably upgrading municipal transport: this is the modernization of tram and trolleybus fleets. I would stress particularly that in the conditions of financial decentralization local budget can cooperation with IFIs [international financial institutions] themselves and implement similar projects,” Groysman said.
The prime minister recalled that the government supports projects to modernize public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia, a pump-storage plant and hopes to agree on the energy efficiency and higher education projects.
The press service of the EIB said that the bank would its support through a modal shift from road to electric transport and more efficient operation of existing public transport systems in municipalities across Ukraine.
“A higher customer service level and sustainability of public transport in medium-to-large- Ukrainian cities will increase the quality of life of citizens, improve environment and increase energy savings, leading to a higher economic output,” the bank said in a press release.
The project will contribute to the implementation of the National Urban Public Transport program promoted by the government of Ukraine. It covers municipal schemes involving purchase of new or modernization of existing rolling stock, e.g. trolleybuses, trams and buses, rehabilitation and construction of public transport infrastructure as tram lines, bus lanes, stations, depots.
The project will target up to twenty municipalities and will comprise multiple investment schemes varying from EUR 1 million – EUR 50 million. The final beneficiaries will be municipally-owned transport utilities or municipalities themselves.
The schemes to be supported under this loan are supposed to amount to total investment costs of some EUR 400 million, out of which EIB will co-finance up to 50%. The project will be also co-financed by a partner financing institution – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
According to a press release of the Infrastructure Ministry spread at the signing ceremony, the up to 22 year financing will be guaranteed by the government. The grace period is up to five years.
The EIB will finance the project in 15 tranches during five years.
It is planned that the project will be implemented in Kyiv, Bila Tserkva, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kremenchuk, Lutsk, Lviv, Odesa, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.
KYIV. Nov 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko have discussed trade, economic and political issues of cooperation during a telephone conversation.
“Both presidents have noted positive developments in trade and economic cooperation along with the growth of trade turnover between the two countries,” the Ukrainian presidential administration’s press service said on Thursday evening.
Poroshenko and Lukashenko welcomed recent achievements of the Belarusian-Ukrainian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation, which met in Minsk on November 10.
In turn, the Belarusian president’s press service said that during the phone call initiated by the Ukrainian side, both presidents agreed that the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation is a good platform to discuss not only problems but also prospects for cooperation.
“As is noted, efforts to remove barriers in mutual trade proceed in a constructive way … It is noted that, despite a decline in bilateral trade in recent years, there has been a positive trend, which must be maintained,” the Belarusian side said.
Poroshenko’s press service said that the two presidents also discussed Ukrainian-Belarusian cooperation within the UN and other international organizations. Yet, the Belarusian side said that the subject of support for a number of Ukrainian initiatives through international organizations, particularly the United Nations, was raised by the president of Ukraine.
KYIV. Nov 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Galnaftogaz Concern (Lviv, OKKO filling station chain) has launched a grain forward program worth UAH 1 billion for 2016/17 agricultural year (July-June).
“This agricultural year we would like to make a forward program for UAH 1 billion and next year to increase financing to UAH 3 billion,” Galnaftogaz Vice President Vasyl Danyliak said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He said that the concern created OKKO-Agrotrade in 2016 to cooperate with farmers.
“We have created a division that would trade with fuel and mineral fertilizers and help to sell harvest. We can cover from 30% to 40% of farmers’ needs with our products,” he said.
In 2016/17 agri-year the company expects to receive 250,000 tonnes of grain under the forward program. The key tools for working with farmers will be future harvest as collateral and agrarian receipts. The financing rate will be 10.5% per annum.
Danyliak said that the company is ready to provide eight types of mineral fertilizers to farmers.
“We have many oil depots. Some of them were sold and some are operating. Today we see that we have opportunities for selling mineral fertilizers from them. We do not have the capacity for storing urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) in Ukraine. We are ready to give our oil depots for storing it,” he said.
OKKO-Agrotrade Director General Oleksandr Nikolenko said that in the future his company seeks to cover 100% of farmers’ needs in goods and finances required for industrial processes. Among the company’s clients are farmers with land banks from 500 ha to 100,000 ha.
KYIV. Nov 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Astarta, one of the largest agricultural enterprises in Ukraine, in January-September 2016 posted a net profit of EUR78.617 million, which is 2.9 times more than in the same period of 2015.
According to its financial report, posted on the website of the holding, its consolidated revenues in the first nine months increased by 8.2%, to EUR216.478 million.
Gross profit increased by 4.7%, to EUR118.936 million, EBITDA amounted to EUR129.006 million against EUR108.118 million for January-September 2015.
Cash flow from operating activities rose by 7.7%, to EUR54.902 million.
Revenues from sugar sales totaled EUR100 million (in the same period last year EUR104 million), and provided 46% of consolidated revenues.
In the first nine months Astarta sold 237,000 tonnes of produce, including 45,000 tonnes for exports, which is 11% less than a year before.
Astarta said on the date of publication of the report its eight sugar factories had processed about 2 million tonnes of sugar beets and produced over 280,000 tonnes of sugar. In general, the company plans this season to process 3.2 million tonnes of sugar beets, 70% of which is grown at own farms.
KYIV. Nov 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine plans to export flaked grain produced at the corporation facilities in Novoukrainka (Kirovohrad region).
According to a press release, now the corporation is mulling their exports to China.
Over the four months of the 2016/2017 marketing year (MY, July-June) the corporation branches processed 71,600 tonnes of grain, of which 67,600 tonnes of wheat and 4,600 tonnes of rye.
“Over the year, in accordance with the plan, we have to process 320,000 tonnes of grain. However, we have an ambitious task to ensure growth in the share of our refined products in the domestic market and increase exports of finished products to other countries, develop new market areas,” the director of the department of elevator operations and finished products sales, Hennadiy Hordiyenko said.
KYIV. Nov 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bank Trust (Kyiv) will attract an investor to increase charter capital by 2.5 times, to UAH 300 million, the bank has said.
“A meeting of Bank Trust shareholders will be held on December 12, 2016, at which a decision will be made as for increasing charter capital by issuing new shares, including for a new investor – Flexinvest Plc. The investor highly praised the current business model of PJSC Bank Trust and confirmed to the National Bank of Ukraine its readiness to increase the bank’s charter capital by UAH 180 million,” a statement reads.
According to the bank, the planned completion of investing is February 2017.
The bank told Interfax-Ukraine Flexinvest Plc is a Russian company investing particularly in the banking sector.
Bank Trust was founded in 2007.
According to information on the NBU’s website, as of February 22, 2016 the owners of Bank Trust were Volodymyr Avramenko (78.9%), Russian citizen Sergey Belyaev (16.1%), and Sorin Mayerian (5%).
Bank Trust ranked 60th among 101 operating banks in the country on October 1, 2016 by total assets (UAH 825.045 million), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
