Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group has spent $209 mln to support Ukraine and its citizens since the beginning of the full-scale war, of which 57% for the army within the framework of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front militarized initiative, 23% for employee assistance, 17% for humanitarian and other projects, and 4% for medical assistance.
According to Metinvest’s presentation at the Barclays ESG Emerging Markets Corporate Day, dated June 26 of this year, the group provided protective equipment to the personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard, the National Defense Forces and the National Police in support of the military.
At the same time 370 mobile shelters, 150 thousand bulletproof vests, most of which are made with Metinvest armored steel plate, 25 thousand helmets, 2000 thermal imagers and other equipment were purchased and sent to the military. The company manufactured and supplied the defenders of Ukraine with 250 fake military equipment targets, 80 thousand anti-tank hedgehogs and spiked chains, 70 mobile buggies and 5,000 field ovens.
More than 4,900 reconnaissance drones were also sent to the military. To protect Ukraine on the water, the group donated 10 high-speed boats and 800 self-inflating life jackets.
Metinvest’s Ukrainian assets donated 520 vehicles, 100 ambulances and 1.4 million liters of fuel to the front lines. The group also invested in the construction of a mine action center to train specialists in demining areas after combat operations.
As part of humanitarian and other projects, Metinvest, together with other SCM companies and with the assistance of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, in particular, created and finances the “Saving Life” humanitarian aid center with the provision of food and other essentials.
As part of medical aid, the company supplies vital medicines, equipment and consumables to local hospitals. The Group financed the development of medical services and reconstruction of hospitals. Together with the Puls charitable foundation, the group promotes the development of tactical medicine.
Social projects include supporting its employees and their families by providing psychological services, introducing an additional bonus for employees, and developing a program for veterans of the AFU. In 2023, the group’s workforce decreased by 7% year-on-year, with about 6,000 employees serving in the defense forces at the end of last year.
Amid the war, the group has focused on improving safety at work – health and safety expenditure increased by 16% in 2023 compared to 2022.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical companies. The group’s enterprises are located primarily in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the holding. Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Kormotech, Ukraine’s largest producer of cat and dog food, has started exporting its products to the Korean market, the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
As specified in the report, since June 17, Kormotech’s Optimeal and Club 4 Paws brands have been presented on 12 Korean specialized Internet sites.
South Korea’s pet food market ranks third among East Asian countries, after China and Japan in East Asia. In terms of money, it is three times larger than the Ukrainian market. The share of sales of specialized food for cats and dogs is 50% to 50%.
“The South Korean market is unique in that 67% of petfood sales are made through online channels. This is the highest figure in the world, according to Euromonitor reports. Therefore, one of the challenges in cooperation with South Korea is to gain experience in building and developing online sales in the premium and super premium market,” said Eduard Babenko, Head of Strategic Business Unit Ukraine, Moldova and Southeast Asia at Kormotech.
Kormotech started negotiations with a distributor, Korean company Careside co. Ltd last year, and a cooperation agreement was signed in the fall. At the end of May 2024, the distributor received the first two containers of dry and wet food Optimeal and Club 4 Paws, which is about 24 tons of products.
You Young Kook, CEO of the Korean company Careside co. Ltd. expects that experience in international markets and resources will help the Ukrainian manufacturer to succeed in the South Korean market.
“Kormotech pet food contains high quality ingredients and undergoes rigorous quality control. This is a significant advantage, especially for demanding Korean pet owners. It is impressive to see how the company is constantly deepening its expertise in understanding the approaches to pet food formulation and their impact on the health and quality of life of pets. And most importantly, the efforts it makes to develop a culture of care and companionship with pets,” said You Young Kook.
According to Vladyslav Mazurkevych, Kormotech’s Asia Export Market Development Manager, super premium and premium cat and dog food lines are already available on the following 12 e-commerce sites in South Korea: Naver, Coupang, TM, WM, G-market, Auction, 11th St., Lotte On, Interpark, SSG, CJ on style, GS Shop.
“By the end of this year, we want to start cooperation with pet stores and veterinary clinics so that customers can look at the product, inspect it, and feel it,” Mazurkevych explained.
In 2023, Kormotech’s turnover increased by 22.5% to $152 million from $124 million in 2022. The ratio of sales abroad and in Ukraine in tons is now 31% to 69%, respectively (in 2022, it was 28% abroad and 72% in Ukraine).
The prices of sale and purchase of agricultural land in May 2024 significantly increased compared to the previous months and are now the highest for the entire existence of the land market: the weighted average price per hectare in May was 45.0 thousand UAH, which is 8.2% higher than in April 2024, and 5.6% higher than in March this year, according to a study by the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), which is conducted on behalf of the USAID program.
According to analysts, the price of land with the intended purpose “for commercial agricultural production” was even higher and reached UAH 46.2 thousand.
“The above prices are based on the official prices registered in the Register of Property Rights during sale and purchase transactions. Market prices for land can be much higher, because most of all transactions are concluded at a price that does not differ from the normative-monetary valuation (the minimum price established by law for former sub-moratorial lands) by more than 2%,” the KSE clarified.
At the same time, experts believe that a slight decrease in prices in April 2024 and an increase in the cost of agricultural land in May this year is unlikely to be a long-term trend.
Since the beginning of 2024, average land prices remain significantly higher than in previous periods. Consequently, it can be stated that the opening of the land market for legal entities in January 2024 has led to structural changes in the market conditions, and as a consequence has led to an increase in the value of agricultural land, according to the KSE study “Land of Indestructibility”.
The Association “Insurance Business” (ASB) appealed to the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada with a request to postpone the deadline for bringing the activities of insurance companies in line with the requirements of the law “On Insurance”, according to the information of the association. According to the new version of the law “On Insurance” adopted on November 18, 2021, insurers must bring their activities in line with its norms until July 1 this year
“We have prepared to the members of Parliament a very reasonable proposal to postpone this deadline to January 1, 2026,” – said the general director of the ASB Vyacheslav Chernyakhovsky.
He pointed out that during the preparation and adoption of the law it was planned that all the changes stipulated by it would be introduced under normal conditions of a relatively stable political and economic situation. But three months after its adoption, Russia’s full-scale military aggression began.
“It is clear that such cardinal changes are impossible in the new conditions of war and the struggle of the whole country with the biggest crisis in its existence,” he emphasized.
In support of this, Chernyakhovsky cites the following facts, in particular, the fact that the vast majority of NBU regulations were adopted in the last decade of December 2023, of which 10 NPAs have an ultra-high level of influence on all business processes of insurers. The consequence of these changes in legislation and regulatory framework is the need to update all internal documents of insurance companies (more than 100 documents with a total volume of more than 1 thousand pages), development of new insurance terms and conditions instead of insurance rules, forms for all insurance contracts, new software, etc.
“Based on this, insurers actually do not have the technical and physical ability to implement all these cardinal changes for the first half of 2024, which also accounts for the compilation and submission of all annual reports to all government agencies, the audit of financial statements, owners’ meetings, etc.” – is noted in the report
As confirmation of the data of the survey conducted by three insurance associations (ASB, LSOU, NASU) in April 2024 on readiness for the new norms of the law, which showed that out of 59 insurance companies that participated in the survey (61% of the total number of companies in the market, which own 86% of the total amount of premiums), only 20% believed that they will be fully ready to complete the necessary modernization of their activities before the date of entry into force of the requirements of the new law.
The Law “On Insurance” also introduces new capital requirements: the minimum amount of which is raised to UAH 32 mln. or UAH 48 mln. depending on the classes of insurance activities and regardless of the size of business and liabilities of the insurer, which negatively affects primarily insurers with Ukrainian capital, the report says.
“Such requirements put in unequal conditions small (mainly with Ukrainian owners) and large insurance companies. It is especially difficult to fulfill them to regional insurers, in particular, working in the regions most affected by Russian aggression: Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Odessa regions”, is noted in the message.
Chief Engineer of Ukrgasvydobuvannya Serhiy Lahna has been appointed acting CEO of the company instead of Oleh Tolmachev, the press service of Naftogaz Group reported on Friday.
The decision was approved by the Supervisory Board and the Management Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine.
“Lagno is a highly qualified specialist with almost 20 years of experience in hydrocarbon production. He has two higher technical educations in the specialties of Oil and Gas Equipment and Oil and Gas Production,” the statement said.
As reported, Tolmachev became the head of Ukrgasvydobuvannya in January 2023, replacing Oleksandr Romanyuk.
In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021. In 2023, the company produced 13.224 bcm of commercial gas, which is 0.679 bcm more than in 2022.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
Since the beginning of 2024, Nova Poshta has expanded its network in Ukraine from 26.6 thousand to 30.1 thousand service points: 12.1 thousand branches and 18 thousand post offices.
“Our goal is to have all branches and post offices within walking distance to be convenient,” the company’s release on Friday quoted Nova Poshta CEO Oleksandr Bulba as saying.
According to the report, since the beginning of the year, the company has installed 2.7 thousand new post offices in Ukraine and opened 770 branches.
It is noted that the most active growth of the network took place in Kyiv, Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
It was specified that Nova Poshta opened 344 new branches and post offices in the frontline areas in Kharkiv, Odesa, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kherson, and Dnipro regions.
The company noted that by the end of the year it plans to increase its network to 36 thousand service points.
