The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has chosen the French Alps to host the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
“IOC President Thomas Bach said that the delegation that presented the French Alps’ bid reaffirmed its full commitment to the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. France is always raising the bar for excellence in organizing sporting events. Therefore, it is necessary to support their model of the future: innovative, ambitious, environmentally friendly and accessible to all,” the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC) said in a statement.
It is noted that the IOC is confident that France will organize the Winter Olympics with the same creativity and sophistication that is already being seen in Paris.
According to the report, this is the fourth Winter Olympics hosted by France. In 1924, the Olympics were held in Chamonix, in 1968 in Grenoble, and in 1992 in Albertville.
The amount of transfers through the international financial service NovaPay in January-June 2024 reached UAH 136.6 billion, which is 26% more than in the same period of 2023, the company’s press service reports.
It is noted that in January-June this year, 193 million transactions were made through the NovaPay system, which is 17% more than in the first half of last year.
According to the release, the company transferred UAH 530 million to the country’s budget, which is 13% more than in the first half of 2013, and assistance to the Armed Forces amounted to UAH 3 million.
It is noted that the most popular services of NovaPay, in addition to traditional transfers, were card replenishment operations, cash withdrawals, and utility bills.
NovaPay is an international financial service founded in 2001 that is part of the Nova group and provides online and offline financial services at Nova Poshta offices. According to its website, the company employs about 13 thousand people in more than 3.6 thousand Nova Poshta offices across Ukraine. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the company accounts for 35% of the total volume of domestic money transfers.
In 2023, the consolidated revenue of NovaPay non-banking financial group increased by 46.4% to UAH 7 billion 617.91 million, and net profit by 38.3% to UAH 3 billion 267.13 million.
State-owned Oschadbank (Kyiv) earned UAH 8.81 billion in net profit in January-June 2024, up 29%, or almost UAH 2 billion, compared to the same period last year, the financial institution said on Tuesday.
“Such dynamics testifies to the effectiveness of the implementation of the military strategy of Oschad,” the state bank commented on the results.
It is specified that in January-June, the bank received UAH 2.7 billion of net profit from the revaluation of financial instruments in the securities portfolio, and in June, the net profit of Oschad amounted to UAH 74 million.
The bank’s net interest income increased by almost 26% to UAH 10.96 billion for the half-year, while net non-interest income increased by about 13% to UAH 4.09 billion.
“This result was achieved, in particular, due to the increase in lending to businesses and households: the respective loan portfolios of large corporations, micro, small and medium-sized businesses and individuals increased during the first six months of the year,” Oschadbank explains.
According to the release, the financial institution’s operating profit for the first half of 2024 exceeded UAH 7 billion, which is a quarter better than the result for the same period last year.
It is noted that Oschad has sufficient liquidity and capital at its disposal. In particular, the bank’s regulatory capital adequacy ratio (RCR) as of July 1, 2024 amounted to 14.35%, while the NBU’s established standard is 10%.
“We are pleased with the results achieved due to the stable operation of Oschadbank and successful adaptation to the wartime conditions. One of our main tasks now is to ensure that these results are even more beneficial to the real sector of the economy to ensure a stable recovery and further development of the country,” said Oschadbank Chairman of the Board Serhiy Naumov.
According to him, the bank is currently paying special attention to providing clients with affordable financial resources to restore energy infrastructure and strengthen energy independence of businesses and citizens.
According to the NBU, the bank’s net profit last year amounted to UAH 6.84 billion. As of June 1, 2024, Oschad ranked second in terms of total assets (UAH 415.82 billion) among 63 operating banks.
The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) is forced to appeal to law enforcement agencies and the public due to a new incident of attempted blocking of its activities at its headquarters at 34 Khreshchatyk Street, Kyiv.
The personal belongings of the business union’s employees, as well as important working documents, keys for electronic signatures, forms and seals of the organization remain in the premises. This situation greatly complicates our activities and threatens to disrupt the international projects to restore Ukraine that we are involved in.
We remind you that a few months ago, the balance holder of the premises, the Office of Administrative Buildings of the Economic and Financial Department of the CMU Secretariat, decided in an ultimatum not to agree to the extension of the USPP office, which it has occupied for 32 years, arguing that government officials need the building. At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers itself has announced a reduction in ministries and, accordingly, in their staffs, and the neighboring floors of the building on Khreshchatyk, with a total area of about 3,000 square meters, have not been used for years.
The ULIE seeks to resolve everything exclusively in the legal field. Therefore, court proceedings on this issue are ongoing, and the courts have not yet made a decision on this issue.
Instead, the balance holder, without waiting for a court decision, installed a metal structure worth about 400 thousand hryvnias – and this is in wartime, in conditions of unprecedented budget deficit – to simply prevent employees of the NGO from returning to their workplaces.
On the basis of the ULIE, the Anti-Crisis Headquarters for Economic Sustainability under Martial Law operates, where the problems of the wartime economy are discussed, and the meetings are attended by representatives of the parliament, government officials, business organizations, the National Academy of Sciences and others. The headquarters’ recommendations are taken into account in the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council and the Government, as well as in draft laws of the Verkhovna Rada. For example, a recent meeting of the Anti-Crisis Center was devoted to the issues of reservation and energy. Our efforts have resulted in progress in the electronic booking of specialists, and before that, in the ability to book all 100% of employees of defense companies, etc. Proposals on energy are expected to be taken into account in the NSDC decisions. The day before, Anatoliy Kinakh, President of the ULIE, held a working meeting with Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, where the parties agreed on joint actions in this area.
The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs is actively involved in the implementation of the President’s initiative “Made in Ukraine” and the joint Statement of the Government and business associations of Ukraine on deepening cooperation between the state and business.
Moreover, the ULIE regularly hosts meetings and working communications with international partners: a joint project with the ILO to stimulate women’s economic involvement through the development of a network of corporate children’s spaces, online conferences with related business organizations from the EU, the US, and other partner countries of Ukraine in the fight against the Russian aggressor, and meetings with ambassadors.
In Warsaw, the ULIE registered the Premier-U International Foundation, whose main goal is to restore Ukraine from the consequences of Russian aggression and attract investments from partner countries for these purposes. The supervisory board of the Foundation includes former prime ministers of Ukraine and Poland, and in the future – most EU countries.
Therefore, such unilateral actions by the balance holder (the CMU Office) threaten to disrupt important projects to restore Ukraine and call into question the state intentions of individual government officials involved in this case.
As long as the court proceedings are ongoing, it is unacceptable to impede the statutory activities of the USPP, an organization with a 32-year history, known and respected in business circles in Ukraine and the EU. This harms the European integration process, the image of the state, worsens business expectations and reduces the effectiveness of the government-entrepreneurs’ dialogue.
The unimpeded operation of the ULIE is critically important for supporting Ukrainian business and industry, especially under martial law.
We appeal to Ukrainian business associations, employers’ associations, public organizations and initiatives to support us as you have always done. We also appeal to the media to cover this incident. Your attention and support is important for ensuring transparency and justice in our country.
The war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues. The enemy is focusing its efforts on depleting Ukraine’s resources.
Now is the time for unity, joint work to increase the resilience and self-sufficiency of the national economy, development of Ukrainian production, and thus further strengthening of our defense capabilities.
For more details, please visit the official website of the ULIE (uspp.ua).
The background of the issue is here.
The US Mercury Bank has amended its policy, according to which it refuses to service accounts of legal entities whose founders are located in Ukraine, according to a message released by Mercury on social networks.
“While Ukraine is not subject to comprehensive sanctions, several regions of Ukraine have been sanctioned. We have previously utilized a regional model to support as many customers in Ukraine as possible; however, maintaining this policy while meeting our strict compliance standards has become increasingly challenging. We will continue to review this policy and hope to be able to modify it in the future,” the bank said in a statement to a client inquiry.
In Mercury clarified that the initial message that the bank refuses to serve and companies with founders with Ukrainian passport residing in the U.S., was erroneous.
On July 22, Petcube CEO Yaroslav Azhnyuk reported about the receipt of such a letter refusing to open accounts for applicants with passports of such countries as Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, regardless of their physical location. According to him, Ukrainian customers will have full access to their accounts until August 6, and already on August 13 their accounts will be closed.
However, in comments to the post, users published a screenshot of Mercury’s response on Linkedin, where the bank points out an error in its own statement, and says that these restrictions do not apply to Ukrainians living in the United States.
“We have always allowed (and continue to allow) customers with Ukrainian passports based in the US to use Mercury – we simply cannot support companies with founders based in Ukraine today. We apologize for the confusion caused by this error”, – stated in the message.
In turn, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, reacted to the situation by asking to forward to her Mercury Bank’s letters to Ukrainian clients with permission to explain the situation.
“Corum Druzhkovka Machine-Building Plant (Corum DrMZ), a part of Corum Group (DTEK Energy), has received a new order to supply underground wheeled vehicles for DTEK Energy’s mines, the plant reported on Facebook.
The order, the value of which was not disclosed, will include one passenger mine car, six freight cars, nine transport trolleys and 30 unified wheelsets.
“The equipment will be manufactured for Ternovskoye and Dniprovskoye mines. Delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024,” the statement said.
It is specified that the new order includes a number of improvements to increase transportation efficiency.
The plant also previously posted on Facebook that it had received an order to manufacture reloading and receiving devices for Zakhidno-Donbasskaya mine of Ternovskoye Mine, which the plant had not previously produced.
The equipment weighing more than 20 tons and designed to transport raw and enriched coal inside the complex’s building will replace the old one during the overhaul. The first five units will be shipped in August. The delivery is scheduled to be completed in October.
“Corum DrMZ, relocated to Dnipro in 2022, according to Opendatabot, earned UAH 500 million in net profit in 2023, compared to a loss of UAH 453 million a year earlier, with net income growing 2.7 times to UAH 1 billion 530 million.
In June 2024, the plant manufactured 44 units of products and 78.6 thousand components and spare parts, including 40 freight trolleys, 20 unified wheel sets, two suspension devices and two reloaders. A KPD tunneling machine and 102 consoles were also repaired.
According to the plant, in the second half of 2024, it will produce wheeled vehicles, lifting equipment, loaders, a hoisting machine, fans, non-core products, and repair tunneling machines.
“We will also manufacture new metal structures for buildings. The investments will be used to repair machines, but we also plan to purchase new equipment,” the plant’s director Tatyana Kalugina was quoted as saying in the report.
Corum Group is a leading manufacturer of mining equipment in Ukraine. It is a part of DTEK Energy, an operating company responsible for coal mining and coal-fired power generation within Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy holding.
