Forecast of changes in discount rate of National bank of Ukraine, %
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Ferrexpo, a mining company with assets in Ukraine, reduced its capital investments by 43.1% to $58 million in January-June this year, compared to $102 million in the first half of last year.
According to the company’s semi-annual report on Wednesday, capex for the first half of 2023 includes $27 million for maintenance and modernization capex and expansion capex of $31 million across the group.
It is noted that given the operational and logistical constraints due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the group has maintained its levels of sustaining capex investment and is seeking to reduce investment in expansion capex projects, particularly those expected to generate returns in the medium to long term.
Overall in H1-2023, this included $17 million in capitalized stripping works to support future production growth; $7 million in expansion commitments, including the press filter complex; and $2 million in the development of the Belanovsky mine.
Due to the war, the group has suspended significant funding for Wave 1 Expansion projects (Wave 1 Expansion – a combination of mining, concentrating and pelletizing investment projects that will produce an additional 3 million tons of pellets), intending to resume investment once the hostilities and/or risks to the group have ceased.
In addition, the group continues to maintain its net cash position and balance its operational and financial targets. It is clarified that the group’s net cash position has improved from $106 million as at December 31, 2022 to $131 million as at June 30, 2023.
The group has no confirmed debt facilities or unconfirmed trade finance facilities, there are insignificant group debt facilities. The group’s gross debt balance at June 30, 2023 was $4 million compared to $7 million at December 31, 2022.
In addition, it is stated that the group has regularly received VAT refunds during the first half of the 2023 financial year, including overdue balances. Meanwhile, at the end of June-2023, VAT receivables from tax authorities amounted to $47.111 million, compared to $88.762 million at the end of 2022 and $107.552 million at the end of June-2022.
“The overdue VAT balance of $47.149 million at the end of December 31, 2022 was fully collected in January 2023.However, future refunds depend on the situation in Ukraine and how the country is going to cope with state budget constraints as a result of the ongoing war,” the report said.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC, 100% of Yeristovskiy GOK LLC and 99.9% of Belanovskiy GOK LLC.
The Supervisory Board of Raiffeisen Bank appointed Sebastian Rubaj for the position of the Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of the Bank. He will assume his duties on this position starting from September 4, 2023.
Sebastian Rubaj will be the Chief Retail Officer.
Before the appointment for this position Sebastian Rubaj (46 years old, from Poland) was a Deputy Chairman of the Management Board in FUIB from September 2014 to April 2023.
Starting from 2007, he held the position of the vice-president, and starting from 2009 – the position of the Chairman of the Management Board of Renaissance Credit Bank. He was also the Board Member of Sygma Bank (Poland) and has experience of working in the Polish branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He got the education in the area of finances and banking in Cracow University of Economics and Hogeschool Brabant Breda.
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Raiffeisen Bank JSC was registered on March 27, 1992, from October 2005 it became a part of the Austrian Banking Group Raiffeisen Bank International AG. As of June 30, 2023, Raiffeisen Group owned 68.21% of the bank’s shares, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development owned 30%.
A wide range of banking services is provided to 2.9 mio customers of Raiffeisen Bank via the network, which includes 300 branches around Ukraine, as well as Raiffeisen Online and Raiffeisen Business Online applications and other remote channels 24/7.
Shareholders of Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Tihipko’s Dniprometiz PJSC (Dnipro) have decided to change its name to Dniprometiz TAS and transform the company into an LLC.
According to the company’s information in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NCSSM), such a decision was made by the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held on Friday.
It is explained that the reasons for such a decision are reduction of expenses on maintenance of the company, simplification of business processes and optimization of corporate management structure.
In the course of transformation Dneprometiz PJSC transfers all its property, rights and obligations under the transfer act to its legal successor Dneprometiz TAS LLC. The size of the authorized capital of LLC will be equal to the size of the authorized capital of PJSC. Upon transformation, all shareholders of the Private JSC become founders of the LLC.
As reported, “Dneprometiz” in the first half of the year-2023 received a net profit of UAH 17.253 million, while the same period last year ended with a net loss of UAH 12.346 million. In the first half of the year, net income increased by 15.4% to UAH 1 billion 426.222 million. The retained earnings of the company by the end of June 2023 amounted to UAH 257.336 million.
“Dneprometiz” in 2022 decreased net profit six times compared to the previous year – to 25.572 million UAH, net income increased by 1.1% – to 2 billion 474.397 million UAH.
“Dneprometiz” produces hardware products from low-carbon steels. The capacity of the enterprise is 120 thousand tons of products per year.
According to the NDU data for the first quarter of 2023, T.A.S. Overseas Investments Limited (Cyprus) owns 98.6578% of Dneprometiz shares.
The authorized capital of Dniprometiz PJSC is UAH 83.480 mln, the nominal value of a share is UAH 68.08.
Agrarians of all regions of Ukraine have harvested early grain and leguminous crops on the area of 3782 thousand hectares, having threshed 16 million 574 thousand tons of grain at a yield of 44 c/ha, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, in terms of threshing rates the agrarians of Mykolaiv and Odessa regions are leading, which threshed 1772.2 thousand tons and 2.009 million tons of grain, respectively. In these regions grain has been threshed on 82% and 64% of areas.
To date, Ukraine has harvested barley on 939 thousand hectares, which is 66% of the planned, of which threshed 3.755 million tons; wheat from 2.698 million hectares (60%) harvested 12.513 million tons; peas from 125.3 thousand hectares (87%) received 306.4 thousand tons.
In addition, on the area of 1182.3 thousand hectares (86% of the planned area) harvested 3319.8 thousand tons of winter rape.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy changes weekly information about the yield of harvested crops and indicates its growth. Thus, for barley this week it amounted to 40 c/ha, and a week earlier 39.4%, wheat from 44.4 c/ha reached 46.4 c/ha, winter rape from 26.8 c/ha – to 28.1 c/ha. Only peas slightly “gave up positions” from 24.7 c/ha to 24.5 c/ha.
According to the report, agrarians of nine regions have completed pea harvesting. In Dnipropetrovsk region they have started harvesting buckwheat.
As reported, winter wheat sowing this season amounted to 4166 thousand hectares (-834 thousand hectares to the previous season), winter barley – 536 thousand hectares (-255 thousand hectares), rape – 1374 thousand hectares (+110 thousand hectares).
World food prices, which declined in May and June, rose by 1.3% in July compared to the previous month, according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) in its latest survey.
The food price index for July 2023 was at 123.9 points, up 1.3% from June. However, it remains 11.8% below the value for July last year. The recovery of the index in July was driven by a significant increase in vegetable oil prices, partly offset by a significant decline in sugar prices, as well as a slight decline in cereals, dairy and meat prices, FAO experts explained.
The cereal price index in July was down 0.5 percent year-on-year and 14.5 percent year-on-year. “The slight decline this month was due to a 4.8% drop in world feed grain prices compared to June. World corn prices continued to fall due to increased seasonal supplies amid ongoing harvests in Argentina and Brazil and potentially higher than initially expected U.S. production,” the survey said.
World wheat prices rose 1.6%, the first monthly increase in nine months. FAO attributes this growth mainly to Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal. Rice prices in July rose by 2.8%, the highest since September 2011. This was a result of price growth in the indica market segment.
The price index for vegetable oil in July rose by 12.1% y-o-y, which was the first increase after seven months of consecutive decline. Such a noticeable growth in July was due to the increase in world quotations for sunflower, palm, soybean and rapeseed oils, experts explain. In particular, world prices for sunflower oil increased by more than 15% in monthly terms.
Among the reasons for the growth the experts name “renewed uncertainty related to export supplies from the Black Sea region”, as well as “restrained prospects for growth of palm oil production in major producing countries, continuing concerns about the prospects of soybean production in the U.S. and rapeseed in Canada”. A rise in global crude oil prices also supported vegetable oil prices, the survey said.
The dairy price index fell 0.4% year-on-year and 20.6% year-on-year in July. The general cheapening was caused by a decrease in quotations for skimmed milk powder and butter. At the same time, whole milk powder prices rose slightly, mainly due to currency fluctuations. Cheese prices recovered slightly after five months of sharp decline.
Last month the meat price index decreased by 0.3% compared to June and by 5.1% compared to July last year. For example, poultry prices declined due to increased supplies from leading exporters, despite the lingering effects of avian influenza outbreaks in major producing regions. At the same time, pork prices continued to rise for the sixth consecutive month amid limited supplies from Western Europe and the US combined with strong seasonal demand.
The sugar price index decreased by 3.9% in July, the second consecutive monthly decline. But on an annualized basis, prices remain 29.6% higher. The price decline was influenced by “progress in the sugarcane harvest in Brazil and soil moisture in most parts of India,” as well as “sluggish import demand from Indonesia and China, the world’s largest sugar importers.”
The FAO Food Price Index is a weighted average that tracks international price trends for five major food commodity groups.
