The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) may acquire three grain storage facilities from Mriya Agro Holding in Ternopil region as part of debt restructuring.
IFC requested respective permits for assets owned by private enterprise Noriia Zakhid, Black Bryony Holdings LLC and Elagri-Derenivka LLC, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has said.
As reported, Mriya and IFC in May 2017 agreed on the terms of restructuring of the holding’s debt. The parties agreed to split the debt into a secured and unsecured part. They also stipulated terms for restructuring the secured part of the debt. Mriya’s unsecured debt to IFC will be restructured on common conditions for all unsecured creditors.
Mriya’s total debt is $1.087 billion, of which $46 million is loans for working capital, $7 million for leasing of agricultural machinery, $130 million is secured loans, and $904 million is unsecured loans.
After the restructuring, the amount of secured loans will be reduced to $62 million, unsecured ones to $ 213 million.
Mriya is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding founded by Ivan Huta in 1992. Today, its land bank is 165,000 ha in Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Rivne regions. The capacity of its grain storage facilities is estimated at 380,000 tonnes.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) will provide Ukraine with $350,000 in grant assistance as part of the project to improve the situation with hazardous chemicals in the country. According to the GEF’s report released on Tuesday, April 17, the project aims to monitor and assess the real situation throughout Ukraine regarding the quantity and condition of hazardous chemicals, update the national implementation plan for Ukraine’s international obligations on the management of unsuitable chemicals, and ensure the reporting by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
The GEF noted that on September 5, 2007, Ukraine ratified the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, recognizing the need to draw up a national plan for the implementation of its obligations, which should be regularly submitted to the Secretariat of the Convention.
Despite the preparation of such a plan and the beginning of the export of unsuitable chemicals for destruction to EU countries since 2007, Ukraine continues to struggle with a number of problems, among them the impossibility of a reliable assessment of the status of treatment and the quantity of extremely hazardous chemicals available through their storage in unsuitable places and limited access to them.
The GEF said that according to the latest assessment of the treatment of obsolete and banned pesticides in Ukraine, in January 2013, there were 11 tonnes of unsuitable chemicals in the country located on the territory of 1,200 storage facilities.
Under the provisions of the Stockholm Convention, developing countries and countries with transition economies are able to obtain additional funds for the development and updating of the National Implementation Plan. Under such a mechanism, the GEF announced the provision of respective grants at the 5th meeting of the Conference of the Parties. Ukraine has become one of the beneficiaries of the program.
Nestle, one of the world’s largest producers of food products, has invested more than UAH 10 million in energy efficiency projects in Ukraine, said CEO at Nestle Ukraine Ansgar Bornemann. “The company has invested more than UAH 10 million in 22 energy efficiency projects in Ukraine. This allowed 8% energy savings,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday. The top manager also reported on investing UAH 1 million in 12 projects to install special environmentally friendly equipment. “This allowed us to reduce water consumption by 189 tank wagons at the company’s three factories,” he said. Nestle began operations in Ukraine in 1994 with the opening of a representative office. It markets such international brands as Nescafe, Nesquik, Nuts, Friskies, KitKat, etc.
Ukrainian life insurance companies in 2017 collected UAH 2.914 billion in gross insurance premiums, which is 5.7% more compared to 2016. According to a report on the website of the National Commission for the Financial Service Markets Regulation, 96.6% of insurance premiums for this period were received from individuals, 3.4% from legal entities. During the year, the number of insured individuals decreased by 2% compared to 2016, to 4.077 million. At the same time, in 2017 some 1.533 million people were insured, which is 11.2% more than in 2016.
During the reporting period, life insurance companies paid UAH 556.3 million in insurance claims, which is 33% more than in the previous year.
The reserves decreased by 1.8%, to UAH 983 million. At the same time, the bulk of the change in reserves in the amount of UAH 863.8 million was formed under other endowment insurance agreements.
In 2017, seven life insurance companies posted a negative value of the increase in reserves for a total of UAH 113.4 million due to early termination of insurance contracts. The growth of life insurance reserves was UAH 1.096 billion. The number of life insurance companies in Ukraine as of December 30, 2017 fell to 33 compared to 39 a year ago.
The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine expect the country’s GDP will grow by 3.6% in 2019. The corresponding forecast is contained in the draft titled “Main Guidelines of Budget Policy” submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday. The growth of the consumer price index (inflation) by the end of 2019 is expected at 6.5%, the average annual forex rate of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar is projected at UAH 30.5.
Earlier it was reported that the National Bank of Ukraine predicts the acceleration of GDP growth in 2018 to 3.4% from 2.5% in 2017 and a slowdown in 2019-2020 to 2.9%.
Regarding the consumer price index, the NBU expects inflation to slow to 8.9% by the end of 2018 from 13.7% in 2017, while a forecast for 2019 is set at 5.8%, in 2020 at to 5%.
Agricultural holding Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) sold 135,307 tonnes of chicken meat in January-March 2018, which is 9% more than in the same period of 2017. The average selling price of the produce in Q1 increased by 23% year-over-year the year, to UAH 38.78 (excluding VAT) per kg, MHP said in a report on the website of the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
MHP’s poultry prices on the domestic market remained almost at the same level as in Q4 2017, but 23% higher year-on-year due to low comparative basis in Q1 2017. The export price increased by 17% year-over-year as a result of MHP’s export product mix change and increased sales to more profitable markets (market targeting strategy).
In Q1 2018, MHP’s exports of chicken meat constituted 63,144 tonnes, which is 28% higher than in the same period last year (Q1 2017: 49,151 tonnes), having exported its poultry to 53 countries worldwide. Export sales represented around 47% of total poultry sales volumes in Q1 2018. “During the reporting period, following its export strategy, the company has been developing its exports mainly in the countries of the MENA [Middle East, North Africa] and the EU,” the report said.
