KYIV. Jan 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The United States from December 20, 2016 cancelled anti-dumping duties on dry carbamide from Ukraine, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine has said.
“The U.S. Department of Commerce decided from December 20, 2016 abolish measures in relation to the Ukrainian goods,” a statement reads.
Anti-dumping duties on dry carbamide were introduced in 1987, first on goods originated in the USSR, then on goods from all the countries that withdrew from the union.
KYIV. Jan 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – DCH Group of businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky has officially announced that Kharkiv Tractor Plant started operating on January 6, the press service of the group has reported.
“Today is the joyful day in the history of Kharkiv Tractor Plant: we have a chance of starting the processes required for the launch of production,” the press service said citing Yaroslavsky.
He also thanked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Head of Kharkiv Regional Administration Yulia Slitlychna for participation in deciding the fate of the enterprise.
“I am thankful to the Ukrainian president for help in unblocking operation of the plant and the governor of Kharkiv region for consistent support of our efforts in this direction,” he said.
DCH said that employees of the plant involved in the preparation of production facilities for their launch headed by Director General Andriy Koval went working on January 6.
“I as investor in the Kharkiv Tractor Plant aim at providing for rhythmic production process despite all accumulated problems. We are sending workers to the workshops, mobilizing engineers and start launching production. We would have to recover market channels, restore technological potential and economic ties and modernize production facilities. This is a serious scope of work. From the first minute of this day we have started solving these tasks,” Yaroslavsky said.
KYIV. Jan 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The sales of new passenger cars in Ukraine in 2016 increased by 39% compared with 2015, to 64.478 units, AUTO-Consulting has said.
At the same time, in December car sales rose by 33% over the same month of 2015, which became a new record high in sales for the past three years.
At the same time, according to data released by the Ukrautoprom Association, last year 65,562 passenger cars were sold, which is 41% higher than a year earlier, and in December sales increased by 40%, to 7,601 cars.
According to AUTO-Consulting, the leader of the new car market with a market share of 11.76% was Toyota, which managed to increase sales by 58%, to 7,583 units.
Renault dealers ranked second, they managed to increase sales by 51%. Brand number three became Volkswagen, whose sales grew by 2.2 times.
Skoda significantly improved its performance, going ahead of five brands at once and ranking fourth in Ukraine.
Kia demonstrated a similar breakthrough with the rise in sales being 91%. Ford increased sales in Ukraine by nearly 37%, but as a result kept the sixth place in the market.
KYIV. Jan 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The largest recipient of VAT refunds in 2016 was ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, which received UAH 8.03 billion, the State Treasury Service has said.
According to its data, it is followed by the exporters of oil and other agricultural products Kernel-Trade with UAH 6.8 billion and JSC Cargill with UAH 3.69 billion, as well as two steel plants from Metinvest Group of Rinat Akhmetov: Mariupol-based Illich steel mill with UAH 3.77 billion and Azovstal with UAH 3.46 billion.
The second five largest recipients of VAT refunds for last year includes three other representatives of the mining and metallurgical complex: Poltava GOK with UAH 2.77 billion, Dniprovsky steel combine from ISD Corporation with UAH 2.74 billion and Zaporizhstal integrated into Metinvest with UAH 2.31 billion.
The top ten recipients of VAT refunds in 2016 also includes two agricultural exporters: Suntrade with UAH 2.19 billion and Nibulon with UAH 2.11 billion.
KYIV. Jan 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian state-run postal enterprise Ukrposhta intends to hold a meeting on January 17 with participation of Ukrainian and international companies providing vehicle monitoring system installation services to discuss the details of the future tender to buy the service.
“Our company has one of the largest truck fleet in the country – 3,600 vehicles. It is planned to install the full-featured vehicle monitoring system on the trucks [on the basis of existing GPS devices],” Ukrposhta said on its Facebook page.
Ukrposhta seeks to monitor the routes of trucks, achieve money saving and provide for reliability of transportation and improvement of services.
The company intends to discuss technical requirements drawn up by its specialists, the optimal commercial model, factors that could influence the price, the conditions and requirements of the tender to be held in the ProZorro e-procurement system.
KYIV. Jan 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited on January 4, 2017 finalized a deal to acquire 9.99% shares in Astarta agro-industrial holding.
The holding reported on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) Fairfax bought 2.498 million shares in Astarta Holding N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) at PLN 60 per share. Thus, the shares were bought for PLN 149.85 million (around $35.65 at the exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland).
As reported, on August 24, 2016, Fairfax signed the agreement with the companies of the founders of Astarta Viktor Ivanchyk – Albacon Ventures Ltd. – and Valeriy Korotkov – Aluxes Holding Ltd. Albacon held 37.8% (9.45 million shares) and Aluxes– 25.99% (6.497 million shares) in Astarta.
Fairfax shall acquire 450,000 of shares from Albacon and 2.048 million shares from Aluxes.
Fairfax shall also have the right to acquire from Aluxes an additional 4.449 million shares in Astarta.
Fairfax shall have the right to acquire from Aluxes an additional 2.498 million shares in the company, representing approximately 9.99% of the voting rights in the company which can only be exercised 61 days after the sale of shares (First Tranche Call Option).
Fairfax shall have also the right to acquire from Aluxes a further 1.952 million shares in the company, representing approximately 7.8% of the voting rights in the company, which can only be exercised after the 61st day after acquisition of shares.
Aluxes also has the right to put the above shares to Fairfax should Fairfax not exercise its rights above.
In addition, Albacon has granted a tag along right to Fairfax in case Albacon sells a certain percentage of its shares in the company to a third party.
Furthermore Fairfax has been granted the right to nominate the chairman of the board. In addition, Astarta has agreed that the company shall agree some issues concerning shares with Fairfax.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares and dairy farms. The holding also has a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).
