The Cabinet of Ministers has appointed Semyon Kryvonos, head of the State Architecture and Urban Planning Inspectorate, as director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
The decision was made at an extraordinary government meeting on Monday.
In addition to Kryvonos, the meeting considered the candidates Sergei Gupyak and Roman Osypchuk, who were also transferred to the government on the results of the tender.
“Having received all the necessary materials of the selection committee, the government has carefully studied these materials for each candidate and has made a personal acquaintance with each candidate in equal conditions,” said Prime Minister Denis Shmygal.
At the same time he stressed that with the specified appointment Ukraine had fulfilled all seven recommendations put forward when the country received the status of EU candidate as well as fully established anti-corruption infrastructure.
According to government decree No 192 of March 6, Kryvonos was appointed NABU director for a seven-year term.
Ukrainian online retailer Rozetka has launched operations in Poland, Rozetka co-founder Vladislav Chechotkin said.
“Rozetka has started working in Poland. So far, we are in test mode: we are checking all the processes, filling the website with assortment, and setting up all the logistics links,” he wrote on Facebook.
Chechotkin noted that they are counting on both a large Ukrainian audience (more than 2 million Ukrainians live in Poland) and a local one.
“I am grateful to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for making this possible! For the fact that a year after the start of a full-scale war, we not only survived, but can now develop our business. And to all our customers, for whom we have remained “just right every time,” he said.
Rozetka, an online electronics and home appliances store, was founded in 2005 in Kyiv by Vladislav and Irina Chechotkin. In the following years, the company transformed into a multi-category online marketplace. In December 2022, Rozetka’s traffic reached 40 million people per month.
Centravis Production Ukraine PJSC (Centravis Production Ukraine), a part of Centravis Ltd. holding, has brought its main production in Nikopol to full capacity and at the end of February officially opened its branch on tubes production in Uzhgorod.
“Now Centravis production is working at full capacity. All equipment is working, hot and cold shops,” wrote chief sales officer (CSO) Artem Atanasov in a letter to customers last Friday.
According to him, the company’s logistics team is constantly monitoring the safest ways to deliver finished products to customers. Worldwide sales offices operate in Essen, Milan, Krakow, Lugano, Houston and Dubai.
It is also reported that the new Centravis production site was officially opened in Uzhgorod on Feb. 28, with managers from Italy, Germany, Poland, the U.S. and the UAE, and local and regional authorities in attendance.
“This production site is just a part of our big team, as the main Centravis facilities remain in Dnipropetrovsk region. We are very happy that our production is developing and Ukrainian stainless seamless pipes are in demand all over the world,” – noted in the information of Director of Sales.
As reported, the holding Centravis Ltd. re-registered its parent company in Switzerland, having changed its Cypriot location, which will help to improve credit rating and attract longer and cheaper funds for the development of production in Ukraine.
“Centravis” earlier announced plans to open a specialized production of tool pipes for cars in Transcarpathia.
“Centravis” is among the ten largest manufacturers of seamless stainless steel tubes in the world. In 2022 the company has implemented a number of large-scale orders for such global companies as Benteler Automotive, LINSTER Edelstahlhandel, Rohr Mertel, Buhlmann Group, Webco, MRC. The company employs over 1400 people.
Centravis, founded in 2000, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of seamless stainless steel pipes. Its production facilities are located in Nikopol (Dnepropetrovsk region).
Holding Centravis Ltd was created on the base of Nikopol Stainless Tube Works CJSC, service and trade companies Industrial and Commercial Enterprise Yuvis Ltd. Its shareholders are members of the Atanasov family.
Centravis Ltd. owns 100% of shares of Centravis Production Ukraine PJSC.
Sales of new electric cars in February this year have tripled compared to the same month in 2022 – up to 413 units, which is also 40% more than in January this year, reports Ukravtoprom in Telegram channel.
According to the association on Monday, the best-seller in the new electric car market remains the Volkswagen ID.4 – 134 units.
Dong Feng (Honda) M-NV is second with 86 units, and Volkswagen ID.6 is third with 33 cars registered.
The fourth most popular model is compact Honda E (27 units), and the third one is Mercedes-Benz EQC (16 units).
According to Ukravtoprom, a total of 708 new electric cars were sold in Ukraine in January-February 2023, which is 2.6 times more than during the same period in 2022.
As earlier reported, according to Ukravtoprom, in 2022, the share of new electric cars in their total sales in Ukraine (13.6 thousand units) rose to 17% from 14% a year earlier (i.e. to more than 2.3 thousand units – IF).
The U.S. dollar is falling moderately against the euro and the yen on Monday morning, while strengthening weakly against the pound sterling.
The ICE-calculated index, which shows the U.S. dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona), declined 0.1% during the morning session.
The euro/dollar pair was trading at $1.0646 as of 8:20 a.m. Q, versus $1.0635 at the close of last Friday’s session, with the euro adding about 0.1%.
The pound sterling is down 0.1% and is trading at $1.2031 versus $1.2043 at the close of last session.
The dollar-yen exchange rate is down 0.1% and trades at 135.76 yen.
Foreign exchange market participants are assessing the statements of the Federal Reserve (Fed) representatives, trying to predict the future trajectory of interest rates.
For example, Mary Daley, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said last weekend that the Fed rate could stay high for a long time because of sustained inflation.
“To put a period of high inflation behind us, we will probably need more monetary tightening to persist for longer,” she said during a speech at Princeton University.
The Fed’s next meeting is March 21-22.
Meanwhile, the exchange rate of the yuan traded in mainland China is 6.9102/$1, compared with 6.9074/$1 at the close of the previous session.
As reported, the Chinese government set the target growth rate for the country’s economy this year at about 5%. Meanwhile, many economists expected the target to be more ambitious.
Analysts at Swiss bank UBS raised their forecast for Chinese economic growth in 2023 to 5.4 percent from the previously expected 4.9 percent. The growth estimate for 2024 was raised to 5.2% from 4.8%.
EURO, pound, U.S. dollar, yen
Kernel, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, bought the Danube Prom Agro river terminal in the Ukrainian port of Reni on the Danube in February 2023, according to the company’s semi-annual report.
“The terminal has flat warehouses with a single storage capacity of 12,000 tons, and the acquisition is part of the company’s strategy to provide backup options in case Black Sea ports become unavailable as a result of the March 2023 grain deal being terminated,” the agri-holding said.
It noted that it intends to continue investing in its operations in the port of Reni to expand transshipment capacity, and such investments will be attracted by the USAID Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, which has agreed to purchase and supply the equipment needed for such expansion.
In addition, Kernel announced that on March 3, 2023, it closed the sale of a number of farms with a 134,000-hectare land bank, as well as related agricultural infrastructure, equipment and working capital, to companies associated with Kernel’s largest shareholder and board chairman, Andriy Verevsky, as announced in April 2022. This was preceded in February by the final approval of creditors to complete the transaction.
Oleg Vlasenko was the beneficiary of Danube Prom Agro, according to information in the state register. The company’s revenues in 2020 were 1.86 million hryvnia, and its assets at the end of the year were 4.73 million hryvnia.
In April 2022, Kernel’s board of directors decided to divest some of its 134 thsd ha crop farms and sell the assets to Verevskyy companies for $210 mln. The company announced that it wanted to reduce business risks and improve medium-term liquidity amid Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
As reported, in the first half of FY 2023 (July-December 2022), Kernel decreased its net profit by 12.6% YoY to $370.31 million, while revenues fell by 41.3% to $1 billion 889.78 million.
