The Verkhovna Rada has approved the decree of President Volodymyr Zelensky on prolonging the term of martial law.
People’s deputies supported the corresponding bill No. 9532 by a total of 347 votes at the plenary session on Thursday, member of the Golos faction Yaroslav Zheleznyak said in his Telegram channel.
The term of martial law in Ukraine continued for 90 days from 05.30 am on August 18, 2023.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on May 2 approved the presidential decree extending the term of martial law until August 18.
Ukraine’s hotel market has stabilized amid the war, with the highest activity in the west of the country and a slow recovery in Kyiv, according to a study by EY Ukraine.
“We can state that the market has stabilized in the new realities. Lviv, Bukovel and western Ukraine in general have very positive indicators, while Kyiv’s are quite low. In the capital, hotel occupancy is 15-25%, while before the war, the normal rate was 50-60%,” said Rostyslav Khoma, Head of Real Estate Advisory Services at EY Ukraine, at the conference “Analytics of the Ukrainian Real Estate Market: First Half of 2023”.
According to the company’s research, in Lviv and Bukovel, hotel occupancy in June 2023 was about 50-60%, while in Kyiv it was about 25%. At the same time, occupancy in the capital has shown moderate growth since January 2023, and June showed the highest occupancy rate in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war.
“At the moment, we do not yet see any grounds for a sharp change in the level of loading in Kyiv given the current situation,” Khoma said.
In the first half of the year, the main income of hotels was directly from accommodation, while the food & beverage category and conference functions brought less money.
According to the expert, further recovery and development of the hotel market depends on the military and macroeconomic situation in the country.
“If the war ends quickly, there are more positive expectations due to the possible resumption of air travel, a potential increase in foreign tourists. However, it will take some time until tourists are convinced that it is safe to travel to Ukraine. In the event of a protracted war, however, the emphasis will have to be on domestic tourism. Given the restrictions on men traveling abroad, domestic tourism will be a key driver of demand in the medium and long term,” Khoma summarized.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the law No. 8401, canceling the 2% flat tax and bringing back documentary checks and PPO control, said the head of the specialized parliamentary committee Daniil Getmantsev.
“Bill 8401 has become a law. Use it,” he wrote in telegrams.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on June 30 adopted the law № 8401, one of the important structural beacons of the program with the IMF, on the abolition of the 2% single tax from August 1 and the return of documentary checks and PPO control.
Later, MPs from the inter-factional association “Reasonable Policy”, as well as the factions “Servant of the People” and “Batkivshchyna” registered three draft resolutions in the Verkhovna Rada to cancel the results of voting for this document in the second reading and as a whole, but they were rejected.
ArcelorMittal increased its EBITDA by 44% in Q2 2023 compared to Q1, to $2.6 bln, the company said in a statement.
The steelmaker points to improving market conditions as well as positive effects from M&A deals (the acquisition of Pecem in Brazil and the consolidation of ArcelorMittal Texas HBI). For the six months, EBITDA rose to $4.4 billion from $3.9 billion a year earlier.
Operating profit last quarter was up 62% on Q1, to $1.9 billion. January-June operating profit was $3.1 billion, compared with $8.9 in the first six months of 2022.
Net income in the April-June period was $1.86 billion (up 70%), down 63% to $2.96 billion for the first half of the year.
Revenue increased last quarter by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter to $18.6 bln. In January-June, ArcelorMittal’s revenue fell by 16% to $37.1 bln largely due to lower metal shipments and a 14.7% drop in average realized price.
ArcelorMittal’s April-June capex totaled $1.06 billion ($938 million quarter earlier), with a 2023 capex guidance of $4.5-5 billion.
In the second quarter, the company increased steel output by 1.4% quarter-on-quarter to 14.7 million tons; for the half-year, it decreased by 5.5% to 29.2 million tons.
Metal shipments fell 2% to 14.2 million tons last quarter, down 3.4% (to 28.7 million tons) in January-June.
The company’s production of yellow ore for the quarter fell 4.5% to 6.4 million tons, with 13.1 million tons produced in the six months compared to 14.2 million tons of yellow ore a year earlier.
Change in consumer prices in April 2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Konkur Investments Limited, a subsidiary of SigmaBleyzer, has entered into a conditional agreement to sell its 56.90% stake in Ukrainian agroholding AgroGeneration to Ukrainian group of companies Novaagro.
AgroGeneration said in a statement that it is about the sale of 126.1 million shares at a price of $0.036 per share and repayment of Konkur’s debt on current operations in the amount of approximately $3.191 million.
It is noted that the completion of the transaction is subject to the approval of the transaction by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the buyer obtaining adequate sources of financing for the acquisition.
“Given the significant instability in Ukraine, including the ongoing war, a date for completion of the transaction cannot be determined at this stage,” the statement said.
Under current French law, completion of the transaction should result in a change in the composition of AgroGeneration’s Board of Directors and trigger a mandatory public offer by Novaagro to acquire all AgroGeneration shares not already owned by it.
The price per share in the said public offer will be determined on the basis of the price per share paid for the transaction with Konkur (and taking into account the repayment of debt) and confirmed by an independent expert’s valuation report.
It is also mentioned that on July 26 a request for suspension of the listing of AgroGeneration, whose shares were listed on Euronext Paris under the ticker ALAGR, was filed. Their exchange rate on July 26 was EUR0.05 per share, whereas before the full-scale invasion the shares were quoted at up to EUR0.3, and more than a decade ago at up to EUR2.5 apiece.
It is noted that investment firm SigmaBleyzer has helped manage AgroGeneration for the past 10 years.
As reported, AgroGeneration group of companies in 2022 reduced its land bank to 30 thousand hectares from 56 thousand hectares due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and received about $19 million in losses due to crop losses, damage to machinery and infrastructure, reserves, resources and other assets.
AgroGeneration was founded in 2007. The company’s land bank before the Russian military invasion amounted to 58 thousand hectares in Kharkiv region, and at the end of last year it was reduced to 30 thousand hectares due to the Russian invasion. The holding company includes seven companies after the operational restructuring carried out in the third quarter of last year in connection with the war. The point of the restructuring was to dispose of “toxic” assets with 25 thousand hectares destroyed or severely damaged due to the war, located near the Russian border, the retention of which would require more than $50 million.
AgroGeneration’s 2022 revenue fell 41.1% from pre-war 2021 to EUR25.854m and its net loss was EUR31.595m compared to a net profit of EUR14.202m a year earlier.
According to the annual report, the agroholding’s gross loss last year amounted to EUR5.608m against a gross profit of EUR32.361m in 2021, while war losses were estimated at EUR15.448m.
The company’s total debt at the end of last year was estimated at EUR18.065m, down from EUR24.599m a year earlier, while assets were valued at EUR36.391m, down from EUR82.033m a year earlier.
According to a presentation from March this year, the agroholding employs about 400 permanent staff. Last year’s harvest amounted to about 80 thousand tons of grain and oilseeds, the machinery fleet includes 33 combines and 92 tractors, storage capacity – 95 thousand tons, including two elevators.
According to the data on the website of the group of companies, 56.9% of its shares belong to Konkur Investment Ltd holding, which is part of the international investment company SigmaBleyzer, 3.3% – to Green Alliance/Gravitation holding controlled by Charles Begbeder (France), 39.8% of its shares are in free circulation.
SigmaBleyzer is based in Houston (Texas, USA) and has been operating private investments in Ukraine for over 25 years.
Novaagro Group has been operating in agribusiness on the Ukrainian and international markets since 2009. It consists of four operating companies specializing in trading, export of grain and oilseeds; cultivation; warehousing; production and sale of mixed fodder, wheat flour and granulated bran, chicken meat.
“Novaagro owns five elevators with a total capacity of 326,600 tons of one-time storage. The group has a feed mill in Chkalovskoye settlement (Kharkiv region), which produces 200-300 tons/day of products. It also has an oil extraction plant with a capacity of 180,000 tons/year.
The group includes the Nova poultry complex (Kharkiv region), which has three production sites with a capacity of 845,000 birds. The slaughterhouse has a capacity of 3,000 heads per hour.
According to the Unified State Register, the ultimate beneficiary of Novaagro Limited is Sergiy Polumisny.
