Vodafone Ukraine, the country’s second-largest mobile operator, increased its revenue by 13% to UAH 5.76 billion in January-March, compared to the same period last year, while net profit decreased by 12% to UAH 915 million.
According to a post on the operator’s website on Monday, Vodafone Ukraine’s revenue grew by 8% to $151 million in dollar terms, while net profit fell by 15% to $24 million.
OIBDA grew by 12% to UAH 3.18 billion and by 7% in dollar terms to $83 million. OIBDA margin decreased by 0.5% to 55.3%.
In January-April, capital investments decreased by 35% to UAH 815 million, and by 37% to $21 million in dollar terms. The company noted that capital expenditures in this reporting period decreased amid a 26% increase to UAH 5.65 billion in 2023.
Revenues from mobile voice and data services, fixed-line services, and sales of goods/services had a positive impact on the operator’s revenue. Roaming services had a negative impact, the company said.
In the first quarter of 2024, ARPU (average monthly revenue from fixed-line voice services per subscriber) increased by 8% to UAH 112.2 due to increased consumption of data and other services.
Vodafone Ukraine’s subscriber base grew by 2.7% to 15.8 million users. At the same time, in 2023, the operator’s subscriber base grew by 3.2% to 15.9 million compared to 2022.
“Throughout the reporting period, Vodafone Ukraine has seen stable dynamics in its subscriber base and operating performance,” the report says.
As of March 31, 2024, the company’s net debt amounted to UAH 10.068 billion ($257 million). The total nominal redemption amount of 5-year Eurobonds issued in 2020 as of March 31, 2024 is $100.1 million.
Earlier, Vodafone Ukraine CEO Olga Ustinova said that the company would invest UAH 10 billion in the development of mobile and fixed networks, transition to energy-efficient GPON Internet technology, and measures to increase energy independence over the next two years.
IMC Agro Holding has completed the spring sowing campaign of 2024, for which it has allocated 90 thousand hectares, according to its website.
According to the report, a total of 24.2 thou hectares of sunflower and 65.8 thou hectares of corn were sown.
“This year, we started sowing spring crops as planned on April 10, but during the first week of the sowing campaign we had to stop for 10 days due to unfavorable weather conditions (precipitation, low temperatures). We were able to resume sowing in full only at the end of April,” said Oleksandr Verzhykhovsky, Chief Operating Officer of IMC.
According to him, the company managed to complete the 2024 sowing campaign in close to the optimal timeframe thanks to a fleet of high-speed seeders and other modern equipment, as well as the coordinated work of the entire production team. The majority of the sown areas have already shown good growth.
IMC noted that it expects to meet its yield targets as it uses highly efficient technology with an intensive power and protection system.
“IMC is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine) in the crop production, elevators and warehouses segments. The Group’s land bank is about 120 thousand hectares, with storage capacity of 554 thousand tons and a 2023 harvest of 1.002 million tons.
In 2023, IMC posted a net loss of $21.03 million compared to $1.12 million a year earlier, and its EBITDA decreased 11.3 times to $3.22 million. The holding’s revenue increased by 22.3% to $139.45 million.
On May 21, 2024, the first online auctions for the sale of confiscated apartments of collaborators, announced by the State Property Fund (SPFU), took place in the state electronic trading system Prozorro.Sale.
“The sale of property of one of the Russian oligarchs and a collaborator was held for the first time in the ProZorro.Sale system, which allows for the transparent and open sale of all assets related to the aggressor country. These are repeated auctions for the sale of apartments, where the cost of the objects is halved. Despite this, a total of 11 participants came to compete for the sanctioned property. The competition of the bidders allowed us to increase the starting price, and after the conclusion of the online auctions, the Fund for Liquidation of the Consequences of Armed Aggression will receive more than UAH 6.9 million,” commented Sergiy But, CEO of Prozorro.Sale.
The price of the apartment belonging to Mykhailo Shelkov started at almost UAH 3.8 million. Two bidders competed for it, and the highest bid was over UAH 4 million. The four-room apartment with an area of 175.5 square meters is located in a building with a closed territory in the Prymorskyi district of Odesa.
The SPFU put Volodymyr Saldo’s apartment up for auction with a starting price of almost UAH 1.9 million. As a result of competition from 9 bidders, its final price amounted to over UAH 2.9 million. The property, with an area of almost 130 square meters, is located near Arcadia Beach in Odesa.
The winners of the auctions have 20 business days to pay the price of the lots after the auction is completed. The sale and purchase agreement will be signed only after the funds have been transferred to the accounts of the Fund for Liquidation of the Consequences of Armed Aggression.
“The State Property Fund of Ukraine is currently processing 753 units of sanctioned property. These are apartments and houses, enterprises and factories, non-residential premises, cars and even parking lots. We are actively preparing each asset of Ukraine’s enemies for sale: we lift arrests, bring documentation in line, carry out registration actions, etc. We are doing everything to ensure that the assets of the sanctioned persons work for the restoration of Ukraine!” said Vitaliy Koval, Chairman of the State Property Fund.
On May 31, 2024, ProZorro.Sale will hold an auction for the sale of another sanctioned asset – the PentoPack plant confiscated from a Russian oligarch. You can take part in the auction by registering on one of the sites accredited in the ProZorro.Sale system.
As a reminder, the sanctioned property is sold by the State Property Fund at online auctions on ProZorro.Sale in accordance with the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 1233 of November 21, 2023.
A convoy of 20 cars donated by London under the Ulez program for the disposal of vehicles that do not meet emission standards has arrived in Ukraine, The Guardian reports.
“More than 100 cars have been donated to Ukraine under the Ulez program since it was authorized on March 15, of which about half have been delivered so far,” the newspaper writes on Tuesday.
It is reported that the British-Ukrainian organization (BUAID), which manages the scheme in conjunction with Transport for London (TfL), has sent 13 more vehicles to Ukraine for medical and humanitarian purposes.
ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) is an ultra-low emission zone that was introduced in London in 2020. The goal of the program is to reduce the level of harmful emissions into the city’s atmosphere, improve air quality for Londoners and visitors, and promote the transition to more environmentally friendly transportation.
In March of this year, the program began assembling cars for transfer to Ukraine. The vehicles are intended to support the humanitarian and medical needs of the country.
The Ulez zone was expanded by London Mayor Sadiq Khan in August 2023 and now covers the entire capital, making it the world’s largest pollution charge zone. People who drive a car in the zone that does not meet minimum emission standards must pay £12.50 per day.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/21/ulez-scrappage-scheme-vehicles-ukraine
Cygnet has completed sowing spring crops on 26.5 thousand hectares, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, Cygnet has allocated 16.2 thousand hectares for corn, 4.9 thousand hectares for soybeans and 1.0 thousand hectares for sunflowers in 2024. The area of sugar beet sowing was expanded to 4.4 thousand hectares. Another 2.2 thousand hectares are occupied by winter wheat.
“The sowing campaign started on March 30 with the sowing of sugar beets, and ended on May 16, when we finished sowing soybeans. We could have done it 10-14 days earlier, but the rains stopped us and delayed the sowing dates. In general, all worked well, there were no serious breakdowns of equipment. And if there were small ones – literally up to four hours of time and everything was repaired. And the productivity of work, despite the weather conditions, this year we had a very high, “- said Deputy General Director for crop production Alexander Shramko.
As reported, in 2023 Cygnet grew corn on 16 thousand hectares, sunflower – 3 thousand hectares, soybean – 1.7 thousand hectares, sugar beet – 4 thousand hectares, 2.5 thousand hectares were sown with winter wheat.
Cygnet cultivates about 29 thousand hectares in Zhytomyr and Vinnitsa regions, where it grows corn, soybean, winter wheat, sugar beet. The company’s assets include an elevator with a capacity of 60 thousand tons of one-time storage and a sugar factory with a processing capacity of up to 2.8 thousand tons of sugar beet per day (both in Zhytomyr region).
The company also has a dairy business (dairy herd – 605 cows), the products of which are sold to local processors.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=991228989673526&set=a.507543601375403
The growth of Ukraine’s real gross domestic product (GDP) in April 2024 slowed to 4.1% y-o-y due to Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, compared to 4.8% in March, 5% in February and 5.2% in January, according to the Monthly Economic Monitor of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER).
“Due to the intensification of shelling, a significant part of the maneuvering generation was damaged, which caused power outages for businesses and households. Restrictions on electricity supply will lead to a further decline in GDP growth,” commented Oleksandra Betliy, a leading researcher at the IER, quoted in the statement.
Earlier, the Experts Club and Maksim Urakin released a video analysis of how the GDP of the world’s countries has changed in recent years, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=BsZmIUERHSBJrO_3
You can subscribe to the Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
Among the positive news, she highlighted the growth of exports and imports due to better logistics through both the Ukrainian sea corridor and road transport, although in April rail transportation decreased by 5% compared to March this year and by 29% by April 2023 to 15.2 million tons.
The IER clarified that the growth of real gross value added (GVA) in the manufacturing industry in April was 10%, while in the mining industry it was about 3%. Better logistics contributed to the revival of the performance of metallurgy and iron ore mining, it said.
According to the Institute, the growth rate of GVA in construction was high, partly due to the construction of fortifications, while the growth rate of trade slowed to 3% against the background of a higher statistical base.
The IER also pointed out that in April, both the tax and customs services exceeded their revenue targets, while the NBU transferred twice as much revenue to the budget.
As reported, after Ukraine’s GDP growth of 5.3% in 2023, the National Bank expects it to slow down this year to 3%, while the government expects it to slow down to 4.6%. According to the Ministry of Economy, GDP growth in January-March this year was 4.5%, while the NBU estimated it at 3.1%.
Earlier, Experts Club and Maksim Urakin released a video analysis of how the GDP of the world’s countries has changed in recent years, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=BsZmIUERHSBJrO_3
You can subscribe to the Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
