KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) intends to start cooperation with Ukrainian state-run postal enterprise (Ukrposhta) to improve the corporate management at the enterprise and would consider investment in the company in the future.
The EBRD has been working with Ukrposhta under the EBRD program to support the state enterprise sector reform, EBRD Director for Ukraine Sevki Acuner said. He said that the bank would work on the plan to improve Ukrposhta’s corporate management. If the bank sees a need in investment later, the EBRD is ready to work in this direction, he said.
He added that the EBRD is holding a dialog about investment with other Ukrainian postal and logistics operators.
The bank is ready to finance any company meeting the conditions of the bank’s financing, Acuner said.
As reported, corporatization of Ukrposhta was started in July 2016. Its completion is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2017.
POLTAVA REGION. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia intends in 2017 to purchase 9,000 new freight wagons, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“We are approving a serious program of Ukrzaliznytsia modernization. Next year we will purchase 9,000 new cars, I mean cargo wagons, plus there will be passenger carriages,” he told reporters during a visit to Kriukov Car Building Works (Poltava region).
Groysman added that due to the increased investment in production the enterprises will be able to get orders.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia plans in the next five years to finance the modernization and purchase of rolling stock for more than UAH 108 billion.
Dragon Capital investment company could in 2017 double investment in assets in Ukraine compared to 2016, company CEO Tomas Fiala has said.
“We’ve decided the situation has improved to such an extent that we can be cautiously optimistic and can start to invest. We’ve started doing this – bought three assets here: East Gate Logistic and West Gate Logistic, and the Piramida trade and entertainment center. Next year we plan to again increase investment, in particular on transactions that are now in process. Perhaps, we plan together with the partners to invest even twice as much in acquisition of assets,” Fiala said at the fourth Retail and Development Business Summit in Kyiv.
He said Dragon Capital is interested in buying controlling stakes in the companies, whose income structure includes a forex component.
Managing Director for Direct Investment at Dragon Capital Volodymyr Tymochko said the company is considering retail and commercial real estate for investment.
Dragon Capital, established in 2000, is one of the largest investment companies in Ukraine. It works in the field of direct investment and financial services, provides a full range of investment banking and brokerage services for corporate and private clients.
KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Sales of new passenger cars in Ukraine grew by 48% in November year-over-year and by 26% compared to October 2016, to 7,372 units, Auto-Consulting has reported.
“A record-breaking splash in sales of new passenger cars was recorded in November first in the past two years,” the experts said.
The Ukrainian car market expanded by 39% in January-November 2016, to 56,934 units.
Growth of car sales in November was seen almost at all market players.
Toyota and Renault were the two leaders on the market in November with 811 cars sold and market share of over 11%.
New Kia cars sales rose by 54%, exceeding 500 cars (third in November and sixth in October). The brand’s market share grew by 1.2 percentage points, to 6.1%.
Skoda dealers boosted sales by 18.2%, Ford dealers – by almost 57%, VW – by almost 70%, Hyundai – by 31.4% and Nissan – by 30.3% (all from the top ten brands with large sales).
Many brands boosted sales by several times. In particular, Seat, Great Wall, Chery, Fiat and Infiniti finished the month with record-breaking sales.
Auto-Consulting said that the increase in new passenger car sales in Ukraine in November is linked to two factors: stirring up in the corporate segment and currency instability.
KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Dnipro-based Pivdenne Machine Building Plant named after Makarov (Pivdenmash) has shipped to the U.S. Orbital ATK Inc. two main structures of the first stage of the Antares medium-class launch vehicle, whose cargo flights to the International Space Station (ISS) under a contract with NASA have resumed in October after its upgrading.
The press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that on Thursday the structures were shipped from the plant to the Mykolaiv port for sending them to the launch site.
“The customer will accept the products at a port in Delaware, the United States,” the press service said.
Ukraine and the United States have been cooperating under the Antares program since 2008. Orbital ATK designed the Antares launch vehicle under a contract with NASA worth $1.9 billion.
The basic structure of the first-stage launcher was designed by Pivdenne Design Bureau and produced at Pivdenmash. Ukraine’s Hartron-Arkos, Hartron-Ucom, Chezara (Chernihiv Plant of Radio Equipment), and Rapid are also involved in cooperation on the project.
In October 2014, the launch to the International Space Station of a private cargo spacecraft, Cygnus, atop an Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops flight facility in the state of Virginia ended in failure: the rocket exploded just seconds after the liftoff. The failure was traced to a fault in the first stage engines.
After this, Orbital ATK decided to replace the first stage engine. Following a tender for the new version of the Antares, Russian RD-181 oxygen-kerosene engines were selected as the engines of the first stage. Ukrainian experts ensured replacement and compatibility of the new engines of the first stage with a minimum change in the basic configuration of the missile.
Five launches of Antares are scheduled to be conducted by the end of 2018, six more between 2019 and 2024.
According to earlier reports, the U.S. plans to fully stop using Russian RD-180 engines, which are now used by the rocket Atlas 5 of the U.S. United Launch Alliance (ULA)., by 2019 due to the restrictions imposed on military-technical cooperation with Russia by the Congress in 2014. The supply of RD 180 engines, which are installed on new rocket Antares for the ISS, is now limited to the civilian sphere. Among the participants in the tender fort the development of engines to replace the Russian RD 190, which the U.S. Air Force announced in June 2015, was Ukraine’s design and construction bureau Pivdenne (Dnipro) with its new liquid RD 815.
At the moment, Ukraine and the U.S. continue negotiations on cooperation in rocket engines production.
KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers advocates three-year tax benefits for imports of equipment, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“We are thinking how to include VAT benefits for imported equipment even in the 2017 national budget. We want to make this benefit lasting for 36 months of payment rescheduling… We will think for what sectors,” he said at a meeting with representatives of Ukrainian and foreign business at the second International Trade and Industry Conference “FTAs: Opportunities and Challenges for Ukraine and Partners.”
He said that the government aims at systemic support of national producers: not only the price, but localization of production facilities will be taken into account during procurement.
“The important task for our government is to restore Ukrainian industry,” he said eliciting applause from the audience.
“I understand that today there are problems with law enforcement system, supervision and customs agencies. I would not be a backup dancer for them. They would have to terrorizing businesses or I will announce the public war against them,” he said, adding actually this war has been started.
