The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a EUR50 million loan agreement with Ukraine’s state-owned Ukreximbank, the loan funds will be used to finance private clients and municipalities.
“Ensuring uninterrupted financing through time-tested partner financial institutions such as Ukreximbank despite the war so that the private sector and municipalities can continue to operate, provide services and support the country is a priority for the EBRD in Ukraine,” EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Matteo Patrone said in a release Friday.
It is specified that the EBRD’s special crisis response fund covers the risk on the EUR25 million loan.
“During the war and post-war reconstruction phase, it is very important for Ukreximbank’s clients in priority sectors to have access to investment, commercial financing and war risk coverage. The new EBRD financing will certainly contribute to greater sustainability and adaptability of the Ukrainian economy,” said in turn Oleksandr Shchur, a member of the supervisory board of Ukreximbank.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine at the beginning of May, Ukreximbank with total assets of 275.46 billion UAH is the third largest Ukrainian bank among 65 operating in the country.
Ceramic Masses of Donbass LLC (Slavyansk, Donetsk Region) resumed production, the company’s press service said.
“It was a very difficult road to recovery: damaged equipment, a lot of destruction, destroyed electricity/gas lines, inability to access raw materials, but we managed,” the company’s official Facebook page reported.
It is specified that a limited line has been resumed for the time being, semipharmonic mass PFF-3 is already available, once the production processes are set up, the offer will be expanded.
According to opendatabot, LLC “Ceramic Mass of Donbass” was founded in 2007, the authorized capital – 45 million 579 thousand UAH. The founders are PrJSC Ukrainian Ceramic Group (24%) and Dutch World Ceramic Investments B.V. (76%).
Adonis Medical Group has opened a round-the-clock somatic hospital in Kyiv, which became the seventh ADONIS hospital in Kyiv.
The medical network told Interfax-Ukraine that the hospital has started operating in the left-bank part of Kyiv.
According to the press release, patients over 18 years of age will be able to undergo routine treatment and seek emergency care at the hospital. It will provide care in the areas of cardiovascular pathologies, neurological diseases, and other nosologies.
The healthcare network noted that inpatients can also be transported by the ADONIS ambulance service, in particular during curfews.
The hospital has its own laboratory and diagnostic complex (CT, X-ray, endoscopy). Medical care in the hospital is provided by doctors of more than 30 specialties.
Adonis is a network of private medical centers for adults and children. The Adonis private clinic was founded more than 20 years ago. Its network includes 12 branches in Kyiv and the region, including two own maternity hospitals and a stem cell laboratory. In the clinic’s branches, doctors provide services in 66 medical areas.
Oil prices continued to fall on Friday and ended the week lower amid continued monetary tightening by global central banks.
The Bank of England and Norwegian Central Bank raised their benchmark rates 50 basis points (bps) the previous day, while the Swiss National Bank raised them by 25 bps.
In addition, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell made it clear that the U.S. Central Bank may raise the rate twice more this year.
“Global central banks continue to push for slower inflation, even as the measures they are taking to do so are pushing the economy into recession, and the oil market is responding accordingly,” notes CMC Markets U.K. analyst Michael Hewson.
“Sharper-than-expected rate hikes by the Bank of England and the Norwegian central bank, as well as hawkish signals from the Fed, are negatively affecting traders’ expectations for oil demand prospects,” Hewson is quoted by Market Watch.
The price of August futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures exchange is $73.42 a barrel by 8:15 a.m. on Friday, down $0.72 (0.97%) from the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts fell $2.98 (3.9%) to $74.14 a barrel on Thursday.
The price of WTI crude futures for August at NYMEX fell by $0.73 (1.05%) to $68.78 per barrel by that time. The day before these contracts fell by $3.02 (4.2%) to $69.51 per barrel.
Data of U.S. Department of Energy issued on Thursday showed a reduction of commercial oil reserves in the country last week by 3.83 mln barrels to 463.29 mln barrels. Experts on average had forecast a decline by 450,000 barrels.
Gasoline stocks in the states last week rose by 479,000 barrels and distillates by 434,000 barrels.
BlackRock Investment Company has completed the first stage of the conceptual and design phase of the future Ukraine Development Fund (UDF) and presented it at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2023) in London.
“We are now moving on to the second stage, which will be very important in terms of regulatory details, rules: how is it organized? how is it regulated? what kind of people will manage the fund? how to ensure good governance at the supervisory level?” – said Philipp Hildebrand, Vice Chairman of BlackRock, at the conference.
According to him, other important issues include the creation of a due diligence mechanism to process the flow of transactions and ensure that there is a sufficient flow of transactions to invest capital after it is attracted to the fund.
Speaking about the possible volume of private investments, Hildebrand mentioned the amount of $50 billion to $60 billion.
“We would like to start with concessional capital, maybe a couple of billion,” he said.
The BlackRock representative noted that these funds could be used to make the first few deals that would prove the concept, show real investment flows, and on their basis it would be possible to scale up the work.
According to him, attracting such concessional capital will reduce risks, which is necessary to mobilize large pools of investment. In addition to the flow of projects, impeccable management is also needed, Hildebrand added.
He said that the first pledge to contribute to the fund during URC2023 was made by Andrew Forrest, an Australian businessman, chairman of the investment company Tattarang and Fortescue Metals.
The BlackRock vice chairman expressed hope that in 20 years, the UDF will be as important an institution as Temasek in Singapore.
“But we need to start with realistic numbers and start with an actual proof of concept by identifying actual investments,” he reiterated.
Hildebrand emphasized that some kind of peace perspective is also needed. “If you want to mobilize private capital on this scale, there has to be a prospect,” the investment banker explained.
He clarified that BlackRock is doing this work on a pro bono basis, advising the government, and expressed a wish that European financial institutions would participate in the project in the future.
Giovanni Salvetti, Managing Director of Rothschild & Co Middle East Limited, also emphasized the importance of several pilot successful deals that could make the front page of the Financial Times, serve as an example and a better incentive for other investors than various conferences.
“Courage is contagious. Not only in defense of the homeland, but also in business,” said the investment banker.
According to him, he is currently working on three possible deals worth more than $100 million with investors who are ready to consider investing in real assets in Ukraine until the war is over, but they also want to have a long-term perspective. In this regard, the emergence of instruments to insure investments against military risks is very important, Salvetti added.
In general, he said that over the past 15 years, Rothschild & Co. has been involved in 80% of deals in Ukraine worth $53 billion, so the company has access to information about what investors want and what they are looking for.
According to the investment banker, he sees three types of investors looking at Ukraine at the moment. First, super-speculative investors who invest in Eurobonds and want to double their money in a year.
“These people don’t need anything you are preparing, they have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars five days after the war started. And they’ve doubled, tripled their money as we speak,” Salvetti said, noting that such investments bring nothing to the domestic market.
He called the second category of investors not so speculative, but brave investors who are ready to invest until the war is over and have not yet decided, while the third category is basic investors. According to a representative of Rothschild & Co, it will be quite difficult to attract the third category today, because they need security, macroeconomic prospects and very firm legal norms.
“Therefore, I think we should focus on the one (category of investors) that can already take risks,” Salvetti summarized.
Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar will receive $600m of investment from its parent company VEON over the next three years to implement infrastructure projects, including in the liberated territories, expand 4G coverage, focus on 5G reconstruction, support operator services and charity.
VEON announced the investment commitment at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London (URC2023), according to a statement on the company’s official website Wednesday.
“Global digital operator VEON will invest the equivalent of $600 million in its subsidiary Kyivstar over the next three years. The investment will cover Kyivstar’s infrastructure projects, providing essential communications and 4G services across the country, developing high-quality digital services available to all Ukrainians, and community support projects,” the statement reads.
The company notes that investments will be made to support Kyivstar services as well as digital verticals that will have a positive social impact on the Ukrainian society. They will allow to expand the operator’s network from “LTE everywhere” and fiber to the reconstruction focused on 5G, to provide high-quality Internet coverage for millions of users.
With the planned expansion of 4G networks Kyivstar plans to increase 4G coverage to 98% in Ukraine, including in small and remote settlements in three years. The investments will be used to expand the network connectivity.
In addition, Kyivstar will continue to provide funds for charity support. In VEON reminded that from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the operator has allocated 1.1 billion UAH (about $32.5 million) for these purposes.
“As part of its investment commitment, Kyivstar will continue working with leading Ukrainian NGOs and community initiatives, supporting charitable projects with donations and socially responsible business partnerships,” the press release said.
“The last 16 months have shown the world that communications really is a lifeline for Ukraine. Thanks to the dedication of our team of 4,000 people and the support of our parent company VEON, Kyivstar plays a key role in ensuring the sustainability and recovery of Ukraine from February 24, 2022,” Kyivstar President Alexander Komarov is quoted in the statement.
On his Facebook page, Komarov also noted that the parent company’s investment will allow Kyivstar to restore communications in territories that will be vacated, build new network facilities, increase 4G coverage in the suburban area and on highways, and develop new digital products and services for Ukraine and local communities.
“Kyivstar is the largest mobile communications operator in Ukraine with 24.3 million mobile subscribers and over 1.1 million home internet subscribers. The company provides services based on mobile and fixed-line technologies, including 4G, as well as innovative services such as Big Data, IoT, cloud solutions, digital TV, digital health, etc.
Since the full-scale invasion, Kyivstar’s technicians performed about 150 thousand repairs, which is twice as much as before the invasion, reconnected 800 settlements, modernized and deployed about 10 thousand 4G base stations and installed 32 thousand new batteries to ensure the continuity of communication in case of the blackout.
Kyivstar is 100% owned by VEON, an international group headquartered in the Netherlands.
VEON is a global digital operator that currently provides convergent communications and online services to more than 160 million customers in six dynamic emerging markets VEON is listed on NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam.
