Cypriot-based Ensitar Limited, owned by the businessman, the former head of the presidential administration, Borys Lozhkin, has acquired a 49% stake in the developer of a residential complex in Hilden, the satellite city of Dusseldorf (Germany), from the German developer Liwon Real Estate GmbH. “In July 2017 Lozhkin’s Ensitar Limited acquired a 49% stake in the newly established Liwon Hilden GmbH. Some 51% of its shares belong to the German developer Liwon Real Estate GmbH. The company implements projects for construction of commercial and residential real estate throughout Germany, buys land plots for them and agrees projects with the local authorities. Investors are attracted to finance construction,” Deutsche Welle reported.
It also notes that, according to the German trade register, ex-Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Andriy Pyvovarsky is the executive director of Liwon Hilden developer, established in 2017.
According to the publication, the completion of the residential complex is scheduled for the end of 2019. The infrastructure of the facility includes 115 apartments with shops and an underground parking lot. The complex will appear on the site of the old shopping center, the demolition of which is planned for the near future. As reported, Samaan Capital with a charter capital of UAH 1.25 million, owned by Cypriot Ensitar Limited and whose ultimate beneficiary is Borys Lozhkin, was includes in the single state register in late May 2016.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has amended the rules for issuing long-term visas for entry to Ukraine for foreign investors. “The government promotes attracting foreign investments to Ukraine. In particular, changes were made in the rules for issuing visas for entry to Ukraine and transit through its territory in order to provide foreign investors with the possibility of obtaining a long-term Ukrainian visa,” reads an explanatory note to the cabinet resolution No. 171 of March 14.
According to the document, long-term visas can be issued to foreigners and stateless persons who are the founders (participants, beneficial owners/controllers) of a legal entity registered in Ukraine, if the share of such persons or the foreign legal entity in the charter capital of the Ukrainian legal entity is not less than EUR 100,000 at the official exchange rate established by the National Bank of Ukraine as of the date of making foreign investment.
In particular, the Cabinet supplemented the list of documents that can be submitted for a long-term visa with information that confirms the foreigner’s share in the amount of not less than EUR 100,000.
Ukraine plans to expand geography of exports of Ukrainian wheat to the markets of China and Vietnam in 2018, as well as relax supplies to Indonesia, the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumers’ Protection has reported. “The export of wheat from Ukraine in 2016/2017 agricultural year amounted to more than 17.5 million tonnes, while Indonesia ranked fourth in the system of Ukrainian wheat exports – more than 1.6 million tonnes (9%). At the same time, in 2017/2018 agri-year Indonesia was the first in the statistics for wheat exports – more than 1 million tonnes,” Head of the authority Volodymyr Lapa said at a meeting with the representatives of the Grain and Oilseed Committee of the European Business Association (EBA).
The annual export of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine is about 40 million tonnes, he said.
The meeting participants also discussed the current state of grain exports and phytosanitary requirements of partner countries in international trade.
Deputy Head of the Department of Phytosanitary Security, Head of Plant Quarantine Department of the Department of Phytosanitary Security and Control in the Seed Industry of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumers’ Protection Vadym Chaikovsky said that when forming export batches of crops and crop products, it is necessary to comply with the phytosanitary requirements of the partner countries of Ukraine. If necessary, free areas from pests should be established and be prepared for an annual inspection of agricultural crops for export to China.
PrJSC Lantmannen Axa (Kyiv region) in 2017 received UAH 20.5 million of net profit, which is 6.6 times more than a year earlier.
According to the company’s announcement of holding an annual shareholders’ meeting on April 20, its assets last year increased by 7.5%, to UAH 211.36 million, total debtor indebtedness by 24.5%, to UAH 90.5 million.
Long-term liabilities amounted to UAH 102.95 million.
According to the report, 5% of net profit will be used to form reserves, UAH 19.47 million to ensure the statutory activities of the company.
Lantmannen Axa is a subsidiary of the Scandinavian Lantmannen, which works in four business sectors, namely food, machinery, grain trading, and energy. The main production sites of Lantmannen are located in the EU.
In Ukraine the company sells flakes and muesli under the trademarks AXA and START, as well as AXA bars, ready-made breakfasts Masha ta Vedmіd, and Finn Crisp crispbread.
UNIT.City is launching the Entrepreneur-In-Residence mentoring program in partnership with EIR Europe, with the support of u.ventures, the Western NIS Enterprise Fund. The goal is to create high standards of entrepreneurship culture in Ukraine. The task is to set the right direction for the development of Ukrainian startups and avoid typical mistakes, utilizing international partners’ experience. Mentors are people who are experienced in conducting and successfully selling businesses worldwide. They will be immersed in the Ukrainian startup ecosystem for a month and work closely with companies in the format of personal sessions, public consultations, training.
Both sides will benefit from the EIR program. Startups will get the necessary expertise helping them build business processes more efficiently, understand how to get into new markets and how to create a product that people will buy. Mentors will see lots of startups on their radar screen and will be able to invest in projects in the future and join the board of these companies. The program will last for six months.
“The Ukrainian startup ecosystem is very young. We have virtually no entrepreneurs with success stories going through a full cycle ‒ from an idea to the exit of a project ‒ who could be mentors of people without relevant experience,” says Max Yakover, CEO and Managing Partner of UNIT.City. “That’s why the market needs such a program. EIR in Ukraine will help startups gain knowledge of the development and successful management of a company, as well as the sale and launch of an IPO. Globally, we hope that our program will give impetus to a new movement in the Ukrainian innovation economy.”
Edmundas ‘Eddy’ Balcikonis will be the first mentor of the EIR program. He is a co-founder of the Lithuanian-Belarusian startup TrackDuck, which was sold to the U.S.-based InVision, part of the Atlassian group, in May 2017.
Balcikonis plans to get acquainted with interesting projects and learn more about the rapidly growing startup ecosystem of Ukraine. According to Eddy, Kyiv has the potential to become one of the main European technology hubs. “Ukraine has a huge amount of talent with excellent engineering skills. Plus, Ukrainians are entrepreneurs by nature,” Balcikonis said.
Participation in the program is free.
UNIT.City is Ukraine’s first innovation park. It is the location where all-inclusive ecosystem and infrastructure enable high technology and creative businesses to happen and flourish. The mission of UNIT.City is to become an innovation hub and an entry point for investors, partners and new technologies from around the world; a unique platform where advanced companies, startups, individual specialists, and research laboratories get an opportunity to cross paths and work together ramping up their growth and honing quality. UNIT.City offers its residents a package of services: meetings with investors, consulting, access to accelerating and mentoring programs, prototyping laboratories, well-established infrastructure for work and life.
The resumption of lending to the real economic sector is one of the top priorities of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), although the Verkhovna Rada’s support is required for this, NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii has said. “We need to resume lending to the real economic sector as soon as possible. Over UAH 80 billion could be funneled to the economy,” he said, speaking in parliament when his appointment to the post of the NBU head was discussed.
Smolii said that bills on protection of creditors’ rights and debt management should be passed, which would help to clean the portfolio of non-performing loans (NPL). “If these bills are passed, next year we could resume lending,” he said.
