New containment facility at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant is planned to be put into operation this December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said. “A new safe confinement is planned to be put into operation in December… Installation of equipment and systems is currently being completed there,” the president said at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday.
The legislative protection of creditors’ rights in the process of bankruptcy remains an urgent issue, according to lawyers polled by Interfax-Ukraine. Senior lawyer of Evris law firm Serhiy Donkov noted that the practice of bankruptcy in Ukraine is dynamically developing taking into account both the historically existing design of a competitive process and the world practice. At the same time, in 1992-1999 the law on bankruptcy was the final stage of procedures for the enforced recovery of creditor indebtedness up to the liquidation of a debtor legal entity with the subsequent writing-off of outstanding debts. The bankruptcy law adopted in 1999 included bankruptcy proceedings, introduced an institute of professional arbitration managers performing the functions of forming the liquidation mass, external control and management of the debtor, selling assets and settling with creditors.
“Unfortunately, during this period Ukraine chose the so called “pro-debit” model of the law on bankruptcy, i.e. aimed primarily at preserving the activities of debtors, which was economically inexpedient during the crisis of mutual settlements. The model after the changes made over 17 years has not changed much, as a result bankruptcy procedures are very long, expensive, ineffective in achieving the main goal – settlements with creditors,” the lawyer said.
According to him, international experts assess the average effectiveness of bankruptcy procedures in Ukraine at nine cents for $1 of debt.
“Thus, a lot of barriers are removed for opening bankruptcy cases. The role of secured creditors in the process is greatly strengthened. But the “sacred cow” – state property – is still prohibited. Let’s hope that a new law on state property privatization will be enacted soon, and legislators won’t be pursued by the fears of shadow privatization,” he said, stressing the need for the further reform of bankruptcy laws.
Donkov also expressed the opinion that reorganization should be only pre-trial, voluntary. This is the debtor’s last chance to negotiate with the lender about debt restructuring and avoid bankruptcy.
Senior lawyer at Integrites law firm Orest Tsimerman, in turn, believes that the situation with bankruptcy does not differ from any other practice of protecting the interests of business in the national jurisdiction.
“There is considerable experience of clashes with legislative conflicts, procedural abuses and a lack of a unified approach of courts. For non-professional players in this sphere, this situation clearly follows the meaning of the well-known expression that your fate does not belong to you in the open sea and in court,” he said. In general, according to the lawyer, the state should not solve complex problems with priority on additional norms or whole codes.
“Efforts should be aimed at improving the guarantees of independence of courts and court-appointed trustees. The best practices of work at the most problematic stages of procedures have already been worked out,” he said.
Partner of Asters law firm Andriy Pozhidayev noted the importance of protecting the rights of creditors, taking into account the legal nature and purpose of procedures for restoring the solvency and bankruptcy of the debtor. “A high level of non-fulfillment of debt obligations in Ukraine and crisis phenomena in the financial and credit system cause the fact that the number of cases on bankruptcy occupy a significant part of economic disputes considered by courts. Moreover, in many cases during the procedure of bankruptcy unscrupulous debtors see an opportunity to avoid (in full or in part) liability to the creditor, using for this purpose some ambiguous provisions of the current legislation regulating the recovery of the debtor’s solvency,” he told the agency.
The lawyer noted that at present a number of legislative changes are taking place in this area, the most significant of which include, for example, the code on bankruptcy procedures, the draft of which contains provisions aimed at limiting the possibilities of violations of creditors’ rights. “Such changes will undoubtedly have a positive impact and will contribute to the effectiveness of protection of creditors’ rights. At the same time, the draft code on bankruptcy in the current wording leaves open the main issues arising during the protection of creditors’ rights and needs to be further improved,” the expert stated.
Open data in 2017 brought more than $700 million, or 0.67% of GDP, into the economy of Ukraine, according to a study conducted by the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) in partnership with the London-based Open Data Institute. “If Ukraine continues to work with open data, in particular publish datasets from government decree No. 835, then economic benefits from open data until 2025 will be up to $1.4 billion, or 0.92% of GDP,” said KSE member Artur Kovalchuk, who is one of the authors of the study.
The study finds that today about 3,000-4,000 people directly work with open data, and its further development will translate into the need for personnel with experience in collecting, analyzing, using data.
In addition, Project Manager of the USAID/ UK aid-funded Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services program /TAPAS Petro Matiaszek says that according to the research, the potential of open data in Ukraine is fully comparable with that of the EU. Thus, a recent study by Capgemini for the European Commission estimates direct effects from opening authorities’ data in the EU countries by 2020 vary within 0.37-1.58% of GDP (EUR 55.3 billion).
The study “Economic Potential of Open Data for Ukraine” was conducted with the support of the State Agency for E-Governance and is the first attempt to assess the direct economic effect of opening government data and the potential created by such data for the national economy.
The findings of the research, methodology and other data are available at tapas.org.ua.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the adjusted financial plan of Ukrenergo for 2018 with a net profit of UAH 2.554 billion against UAH 3.296 billion previously set in the document. The relevant decision was made by the government at a meeting on April 25.
The net sales income of Ukrenergo in 2018 is now planned at UAH 7.877 billion, whereas the previous wording of the financial plan foresaw UAH 7.331 billion of income. The planned gross profit is UAH 5.108 billion, whereas before the adjustment the document it included a figure of UAH 4.793 billion.
The updated financial plan of Ukrenergo provides for the transmission by the company’s networks of 113.5 billion kWh of electricity in 2018, while previously it was planned to transfer 115 billion kWh. As reported, Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power grids, as well as performs the centralized dispatching of the united energy system in the country. The company is a state-owned enterprise, it is subordinate to the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry.
PJSC Pyriatyn Cheese Factory (Poltava region), one of the largest cheese making enterprises of Ukraine, received a net profit of UAH 96.4 million in 2017, which is 1.6 times more than in 2016. According to a company report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, its net income last year increased by 1.4 times, to UAH 1.52 billion.
The gross profit of the cheese plant over the year increased by 1.4 times, to UAH 236.3 million, operating profit by 1.3 times, to UAH 126.96 million.
The sales of hard cheese in monetary terms decreased by 4.5%, to UAH 225.2 million, in natural terms by 28%, to 2,300 tonnes. Sales of processed cheese in money terms increased by 9.6%, to UAH 130.92 million, in natural terms decreased by 13.4%, to 2,150 tonnes.
Pyriatyn Cheese Factory is part of Milk Alliance, established in June 2006 as a holding company with a charter capital of UAH 23.5 million and a balance sheet, 99.9% consisting of long-term financial investments.
Private joint-stock company APK-Invest (Donetsk region), a large pork producer in Ukraine, saw UAH 889.1 million of net profit in 2017, which is 3.5 times more than a year ago. According to a company report in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market, net revenue last year grew by 37.9%, to UAH 2.664 billion.
Gross profit rose by 40.3%, to UAH 405.5 million, and operating profit grew 1.9-fold, to UAH 1.016 billion.
As reported, the company plans to increase the number of pigs by 75%, to 1 million pigs and introduce several new technologies in agriculture.
APK-Invest is a vertically integrated agro-industrial company with a complete closed cycle of production of chilled pork from growing grain and animal feed production to production and sale of meat goods.
