Astarta agroindustrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has started working in the fields and applied fertilizers to 40% of fields with winter crops.
The holding said in a press release that wheat, sugar beets, corn and soybeans remain the main crops in crop rotation.
In general, the company has around 54,000 ha with winter crops. The crops are in a good state.
“Areas planted with sugar beet will be at the level of last year, areas with corn and sunflower would be expanded,” the press service said.
The company also plans to stir up operations of subsidiary Astarta-Selection in 2018. The company’s core business is production of wheat and soybeans for seeds, field research, seed and soil laboratories.
In the course of preparation for the upcoming season, scheduled repairs of equipment and premises, step-by-step execution of investment projects are being carried out at the sugar refineries of Astarta. Large investment in this segment is aimed at building a new warehouse for bulk storage of sugar (Narkevychi sugar factory), creating a system of water treatment plants (between the Holbyne sugar refinery, the bioenergy complex and the Holbyne soybean processing plant) and installing new pulp presses.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions.
Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) saw a 85.43% rise in net profit in 2017 under Ukrainian accounting standards, to UAH 330.22 million.
According to a financial report for 2017 posted on the company’s website, net revenue grew by 66.4%, to UAH 6.052 billion.
Antonov is the leading Ukrainian developer and manufacturer of aircraft, a recognized world leader in the niche of transport aircraft. The enterprise cooperates with more than 75 countries. By the decision of the government, the enterprise has been part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern since April 2015.
According to the enterprise, in 2016, its net profit under Ukrainian accounting standards grew 4.1-fold, to UAH 178.1 million and net revenue fell by 0.16%, to UAH 3.64 billion.
Kniazha Vienna Insurance Group (Kyiv) in 2017 saw a net loss of UAH 72.452 million, which is five times more than in 2016, according to materials for the agenda of a general shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 16.
Undistributed loss of the company for the last year increased by 20.9%, to UAH 395.855 million.
The insurer for the year increased assets by 7%, to UAH 476.229 million. Net worth decreased by 2.6 times, to UAH 49.982 million.
Total debtor indebtedness rose by 35%, to UAH 9.171 million, cash and cash equivalents by 7.1%, to UAH 219.1 million.
Long-term liabilities increased by 38.5%, to UAH 345 million, current liabilities by 27%, to UAH 81.298 million.
Kniazha Vienna Insurance Group was established in August 1997. It has 27 licenses for voluntary and compulsory types of insurance. The regional network covers the entire territory of Ukraine.
Ukraine and the United Kingdom have held consultations in London to step up cooperation in the field of cybersecurity.
“Due to recent developments, Ukraine is boosting interagency cooperation with Britain in the field of countering cyber threats. First consultations between Ukraine and the United Kingdom have begun in London today,” the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Monday.
The public council of the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine believes that the unified register of technical survey of real estate facilities should be created in Ukraine. “We propose to the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry to create an electronic register of technical survey materials. Notaries, lawyers, employees of the centers of administrative services will be able to verify in the register if the survey has been provided with a technical passport,” Head of the ZakhidTekhInventaryzatsia association Andriy Davydiuk said at a press conference at Interfax- Ukraine on Tuesday.
He said that the electronic register will allow verifying the authenticity of technical documents, as well as providing rescue services with useful information.
“On April 19, the first Ukrainian congress of engineers for the technical surveys of real estate is planned to be held in Kyiv, where we plan to create a unified platform and develop draft recommendations [on improving the technical surveys],” Head of the public council at the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry Pavlo Mikhailidi said.
Chairman of SkhidTekhInventaryzatsia Illia Meleshkin said that the technical passport in Ukraine does not give enough information about a real estate facility, in particular, its location. This information in open sources would relax work of rescue services, he said.
Davydiuk said that the public real estate technical survey register would not affect privacy of real estate owners as opponents of the creation of the register believe.
“Since 1998, constructors place information about construction projects on their websites and layouts of apartments are available to the public. When apartments are sold online, their layouts and passports are also posted. One should not be afraid of it,” Davydiuk said.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company in 2017 won tenders under five medicine procurement programs funded by 2016 and 2017 national budgets held by international institutions, the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.
These are medicines to treat patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases, Anti-D Immunoglobulin to prevent ABO hemolytic disease of the newborn and medicines to treat patients with cancer and patients with disseminated sclerosis.
International institutions bought medicines under the cardio-vascular and cerebro-vascular disease programs using budget funds from the company.
Biopharma supplied around 48,000 packages of medicines via central procurement schemes.
Biopharma President Kostiantyn Yefymenko said, commenting on international procurement, that Biopharma’s request to review the results of a tender to procure blood factor held in 2017 using 2016 budget funds by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which Italy’s Kedrion won, was dismissed.
He said that it is impossible to challenge the results of these tenders, as international organizations procure using closed-door procedures and use immunity under the international law.
“I would say that we won a tender to supply thromboplastinogen using the 2017 local budget held by the Kyiv City Administration,” he said.
As reported, in May 2017, Biopharma announced that the company intended to seek a review of the decision on the results of a tender for the purchase of blood from the UNDP, the winner of which was recognized the Italian pharmaceutical company Kedrion, whose offer was 30% ($600,000) more expensive than that of the national manufacturer.
Commenting on the initiative to create the national procurement agency, Yefymenko expressed hope that a transparent system of own tenders to procure medicines that would create a system of incentives for national manufacturers would be created.
“Our pharmaceutical companies manufacture quite a wide range of products that are rather competitive in the global market and can cover most of our domestic market needs,” he said.
Biopharma is among the ten largest Ukrainian drug manufactures. Biopharma produces immunobiological preparations of blood, as well as drugs obtained by recombinant DNA technology and probiotics.
