Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar increased its UAH revenue by 16.8% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2022 – to UAH 8.609 billion (in dollars it decreased by 6.5% – to $235 million), according to the report of its parent company VEON on Thursday.
According to it, Kyivstar’s EBITDA profit in hryvnia increased by 11.6% to UAH 5.085 billion (down 10.7% to $139 million in dollars) compared to the same period last year, while its EBITDA margin decreased by 2.9 percentage points (p.p.) to 59%.
“Despite the challenging operating environment, Kyivstar’s revenue and EBITDA growth accelerated in the reporting quarter. “Kyivstar and VEON have committed $600 mln over the next three years, investing in rebuilding Ukrainian infrastructure through communication and digital services,” the report says.
It is specified that revenues from mobile services grew by 17.1% y-o-y to UAH 8.066 billion thanks to the growth of data consumption by 25.6% to 9.9 GB per user per month, (in money the growth amounted to 17.6% to UAH 4.679 billion) compared to the same period last year and the increase in roaming.
As for EBITDA, VEON notes the impact of a 33% YoY increase in electricity tariffs, UAH 92 mln of charitable donations, and staff and customer support programs in the second quarter of 2023. As a result, these operating expenses reduced the company’s EBITDA margin by 2.7 p.p. – to 59.1%.
It is pointed out that the number of Kyivstar 4G users reached 13.1 million (+13.5% year-on-year) and now accounts for 54.3% of the total subscriber base (+7.7 p.p. year-on-year).
“The growth in the number of 4G users combined with new value propositions ensured a 22.6% increase in ARPU – to UAH 110.2 – year-on-year,” the report said.
At the same time, Kyivstar’s overall mobile subscriber base decreased by 2.6% year-on-year to 24.1 million, as it continued to be affected by the number of Ukrainians living outside of Ukraine.
It is noted that Kyivstar supported access to key services, including digital health, information and entertainment services. The number of Kyivstar’s multi-user subscribers increased by +37.8% year-on-year, while multi-user revenues grew by 51.7% year-on-year.
According to the report, Kyivstar-controlled Helsi Ukraine, the country’s largest digital health platform, increased the number of registered users to 25.4 million patients, up from more than 25 million a quarter earlier.
The number of downloads of the Helsi mobile application increased by 0.4 million to 5.4 million in the second quarter, while the number of medical appointment bookings through the platform remained at around 1.8 million for the quarter.
It is indicated that Kyivstar TV’s streaming service ended the quarter with nearly 1.1 million users, representing a +35.0% year-on-year growth. In Q2 2023, 2,500 Kyivstar TV customers enjoyed the recently introduced ‘Kids Profile’, a special portfolio of content for children, while around 11,600 customers enjoyed educational content available on the platform for free.
However, overall, the number of fixed-line customers decreased by 4.5% to 1.1 million over the year, while revenue growth in the sector amounted to 7.5% to UAH 483 million.
It is noted that in accordance with the strategy “4G everywhere” in the second quarter of 2023, Kyivstar connected 80 more settlements to its 4G network, added about 270 new 4G base stations and upgraded almost 1,600 more base stations to 4G standard. Capital expenditures increased by 35.1% year-on-year to UAH 1.395 billion. As of the end of June, the Kyivstar team was maintaining almost 94% of the radio network.
According to the report, in total for the first half of 2023, Kyivstar’s revenue in UAH increased by 11.2% to UAH 16.956 billion, EBITDA by 6.2% to UAH 10.006 billion, and capital investments by 28.6% to UAH 2.176 billion.
Including in the mobile segment, revenue growth amounted to 11.7%, to UAH 15.897 billion (of which data transmission – by 10.2%, to UAH 9.15 billion), while in fixed-line communications – only 1.5%, to UAH 946 million.
“Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest telecommunications operator. It provides communication and data transmission services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies.
Overall, VEON’s revenue in Q2 decreased by 4.3% y-o-y to $916 mln, while EBITDA fell by 10.6% to $415 mln.
Net profit of the state-owned PrivatBank (Kyiv) for January-June 2023 amounted to UAH 29.75 billion, which is 4.7 times higher than in the same period of 2022, according to the unconsolidated semi-annual report of the bank.
According to it, in particular, in the second quarter of this year net profit reached UAH 13.7 billion, which is 5.3 times higher than the net profit for the second quarter of last year.
It is indicated that the net interest income of PrivatBank for the first half of the year increased by 81.4% to UAH 27.86 billion, including in the second quarter the growth amounted to 74.2% to UAH 14.09 billion.
Meanwhile, net fee and commission income in January-June this year increased by 41.3% to UAH 11.64 billion, including in the second quarter – by 43.65% to UAH 5.94 billion.
A significant contribution to the improvement of the bank’s financial result was made by a decrease in the loss from utility reduction in the first half of this year to UAH 769 million, while for the same period last year this indicator amounted to UAH 7.54 billion. According to the report, in the second quarter of this year, this item even generated UAH 51 million in profit against a loss of UAH 5.67 billion in the second quarter of last year.
PrivatBank also reports that its total profit for the first half of this year reached UAH 35.89 billion, which is 7.4 times higher than the figure for January-June last year, including a total profit of UAH 19.325 billion in the second quarter-2023 against UAH 4.85 billion in the same period of 2022.
According to the report, the bank’s assets grew by 5% in the first half of 2023, reaching UAH 568.84 billion by June 30.
This growth is explained by an increase in cash and funds with the NBU from UAH 96.4 billion to UAH 148.23 billion and loans and advances to customers from UAH 68.08 billion to UAH 76.53 billion, while investments in securities increased marginally from UAH 239.75 billion to UAH 240.64 billion, and debts of other banks decreased by 24.6% to UAH 78.3 billion.
PrivatBank’s customer funds increased from UAH 471.97 billion to UAH 488.06 billion in the first six months of 2023, while capital increased from UAH 57.79 billion to UAH 69.52 billion.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine as of June 1, 2023, PrivatBank is the leader in terms of total assets (UAH 742.433 billion) among 65 operating banks in the country.
According to the NBU, Privat closed 79 branches in the second quarter, reducing its network to 1,131 units across Ukraine, although its report said it had eight branches and 1,199 operating outlets at mid-year, just one less than at the beginning of the year.
Nova Posta Group of Companies has launched an opportunity to call a courier to the address in Lithuania to send documents and parcels up to 30 kilograms to Ukraine, the group’s press service said on Thursday.
According to the release, the courier can be called to any address throughout Lithuania: even in places where there are no Nova Post offices yet.
It is indicated that the call costs EUR3.5 to the cost of delivery to Ukraine, but until August 13, a 30% discount is given for delivery from Lithuania to Ukraine.
To call a courier in Lithuania, you need to prepare a parcel for shipment, fill out an application for courier call on the website, application or business cabinet, pay for the order and give it to the courier in closed form.
“Nova Posta” reminds that sending a parcel from Lithuania is subject to customs duty and 21% VAT if the value of the parcel exceeds EUR45. Therefore, in the application form you should fill in the contents of the shipment, the declared or market value of each item. If the real value will differ from the declared value, the customs service may revalue and charge additional customs payments to the recipient.
As reported, Nova Post opened the first NovaPost branch in Lithuania on March 20 this year. Outside Ukraine, the group also already operates in Poland, Czech Republic, Moldova, Romania and Germany.
At the beginning of July, the NovaPost network included more than 10 thousand outlets and over 14 thousand post offices.
According to Standard-Rating, Novaya Posta’s revenue in the first quarter of 2023 increased 2.1 times to UAH 8 billion 83.1 million, EBITDA – almost 4.4 times to UAH 1 billion 307.8 million, and net profit – almost eight times to UAH 1 billion 54.91 million.
Police investigators exposed the scheme of stealing budget funds during the repair work of a kindergarten in one of the cities of Kharkiv region, reports the press service of the Kharkiv regional Prosecutor’s office.
“This scam in 2021 was organized by the mayor of the locality…. Director of the firm (which carried out repairs) and two of his employees … All four perpetrators are reported on suspicion on the fact of seizure of other people’s property by abuse of their official position, committed on a large scale by an organized group (part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and on the fact of official forgery, committed by an organized group (part 3 of article 28, part 1 of article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)”, – stated in the message.
The name of the city is not specified in the message.
According to the investigation, during the execution of works in the reporting documentation were entered false data regarding the cost of used construction materials and the volume of work. In particular, the documents included works that were actually performed by employees of the municipal utility company of the city Council.
Thus, the members of the group managed to seize almost UAH 400 thousand of budget funds.
The Ukrainian Grain Association (UZA) has updated its estimate of the potential 2023 harvest, increasing it by 7.8 million tons to 76.8 million tons of grains and oilseeds, 3 million tons more than last year.
“The increase in this year’s crop forecast is due to favorable weather conditions and better-than-expected crop yields, although the area planted is 2.2 million hectares smaller than last year,” the association said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the updated forecast, exports from Ukraine in the new season 2023/2024 could potentially reach almost 48 million tons, while last season, which ended on June 30, according to UZA estimates, it reached 58 million tons worth about $20 billion.
It is specified that the 2023 wheat crop estimate has improved from 17.9 million tons to 20.2 million tons (2022 was 20.2 million tons and 2021 was a record 33 million tons). Potential wheat exports in MY 2023/2024 could be around 15 million tons, given the early season transitional residue of 4.3 million tons.
UZA also raised its 2023 barley crop forecast to 5.2 million tons from 4.4 million tons (10.1 million tons in 2021 and 5.8 million tons in 2022) and potential exports to 2.6 million tons.
Corn crop expectations for the new season have improved from 24.2 million tons to 26.9 million tons (2021 – 37.6 million tons, 2022 – 27.3 million tons), with potential exports of about 22 million tons, the report said.
According to it, the sunflower crop estimate for 2023 is raised from 12.7 to 13.9 million tons (2021 – 16.9 million tons, 2022 – 11.1 million tons), potential exports could be 1.1 million tons, and sunflower seed processing could be 12.5 million tons.
The UZA tentatively estimates the 2023 rapeseed harvest at 3.9 million tons and exports at 3.7 million tons, while the soybean harvest is expected to be larger – the estimate has increased from 4.4 to 4.8 million tons, and its potential 2023/2024 MY exports could reach 3.3 million tons.
UZA emphasizes that in general, grain and oilseed exports in the new 2023/2024 MY can be expected at the indicated level if Ukraine is able to export through its Black Sea ports and if logistics of alternative routes, including the Danube route, improve and become cheaper.
“Further impediments to grain exports from Ukraine will have a negative impact on the availability of grain on the world market and will lead to higher prices and, consequently, increased food inflation in the world. Moreover, in case of impossibility to export products, Ukrainian farmers may reorient their production and refuse to grow grain, which will further aggravate the crisis in the world food market in the medium term,” UZA said.
The Ukrainian Grain Association (UZA) is an association of grain producers, processors and major exporters of grain, which annually export about 90 percent of Ukrainian grain products.
Areas planted with spring grains and pulses crops in 2021-2023, mln. ha
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
