Oil prices are falling on Monday after a steady rise on Friday and over the past week on fears that the escalating conflict in the Middle East will limit the supply of raw materials to the global market.
The decline in the oil market on Monday is facilitated by the information that Saudi Arabia will lower prices for all grades of oil for all regions in February. Prices for Asian buyers will be reduced by $2 per barrel, state-owned Saudi Aramco said on Sunday.
The cost of March futures for Brent crude oil on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 7:10 a.m. on Thursday amounted to $77.88 per barrel, which is $0.88 (1.12%) lower than at the close of the previous trading. On Friday, these contracts rose by $1.17 (1.5%) to $78.76 per barrel.
February futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) have fallen by $0.9 (1.22%) to $72.91 per barrel by this time. As a result of the previous trading, the value of these contracts increased by $1.62 (2.2%) to $73.81 per barrel.
Over the past week, Brent rose in price by 2.2%, WTI – by 3%, Market Watch notes.
Traders continue to monitor the situation in Libya, where oil production at the country’s largest field, Al-Sharara, has been suspended due to protests, as well as the situation in the Red Sea after a series of attacks by Yemeni Houthis on commercial vessels.
These factors continue to support the oil market, said Warren Patterson, who is responsible for commodity strategy at ING Groep NV.
“However, in the absence of an escalation of the situation in the Middle East, the potential for price growth is limited given the fairly good balance of supply and demand in the market in the first half of 2024,” the expert says.
Northern Mining and Processing Plant (Pivdennyi GOK, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro Oblast), a part of Metinvest Group, posted a net profit of UAH 681.867 million in January-September 2023, compared to a net loss of UAH 2 billion 227.488 million in the same period of 2022.
According to the interim report of the company, which is owned by Interfax-Ukraine, net income for the period increased by 8.8% to UAH 14 billion 27.599 million.
Retained earnings as of the end of September 2023 amounted to UAH 10 billion 727.921 million.
In 9M2023, Northern Mining produced 1 million 414.95 thousand tons of concentrate and 2 million 233.98 thousand tons of pellets.
The company ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 2 billion 972.333 million, while in 2021 it made a net profit of UAH 25 billion 293.042 million.
In 2022, Northern GOK produced 2 million 144.23 thousand tons of concentrate and 1 million 525.01 thousand tons of pellets. In 2022, the plant’s supplies to the Ukrainian market amounted to 3.957 million tons, compared to 12.612 million tons in 2021. The share of sales of commercial concentrate to the domestic market in physical terms amounted to 51%, which is 37% less than in 2021. The company exported 2.092 million tons of iron ore concentrate and pellets.
The plant specializes in the extraction, processing and production of iron ore.
According to the third quarter of 2023, Metinvest B. V. owns 100% of the shares in Northern Mining.
Northern GOK is part of Metinvest Group, whose main shareholders are System Capital Management (SCM, Donetsk) (71.24%) and Smart Holding Group (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
The authorized capital of Yenakiieve Mining is UAH 579.707 million.
Podorozhnik pharmacy chain plans to expand its network to 2000 pharmacies by summer 2024, CEO of the chain Taras Kolyada said.
“Currently we have 1763 pharmacies. In 2023 we have reached 400 new pharmacies. By the summer of 2024 we will grow to 2,000 pharmacies,” he said in an interview with Forbes.
Kolyada said that the network is currently expanding at a fairly active pace: “In 2019 we opened 486 pharmacies, now 400 pharmacies per year is a habitual rhythm for us.”
At the same time, he noted that “we usually have 150 outlets in back closer – somewhere we are doing repairs and looking for people, somewhere we are signing a contract or waiting for the lease from the previous owner of the premises to expire.”
“Landlords see pharmacy as a stable business and are willing to cooperate. We are building coverage of the country. For us, the key is to penetrate the regions, small towns from Chop to Seredina Buda, from Reni to the north of Chernihiv region,” he said.
In addition, Kolyada said that in 2023, in all channels sales of “Podorozhnik” increased by 40-50% in relation to the data of 2022.
At the same time, Kolyada predicts that in general in Ukraine “the trend for network expansion remains, but the market redistribution will be in favor of system operators”.
According to Kolyada, the average investment in opening a pharmacy is up to UAH 3.5 mln.
Metinvest Group’s Kametstal plant, which was built at the facilities of Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMK, Kamianske, Dnipro region), posted a net profit of UAH 1 billion 359.475 million in January-June 2023, while the same period in 2022 ended with a net loss of UAH 1 billion 256.843 million.
According to the company’s interim report available to Interfax-Ukraine, net income for the period decreased by 0.8% to UAH 23 billion 415.731 million.
Retained earnings as of the end of June 2023 amounted to UAH 202.216 million.
The plant ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 883.119 million, while in 2021 it made a net profit of UAH 120.277 million. The company’s net income in 2022 increased by 91.3% to UAH 37 billion 850.282 million. Production in 2022 amounted to 1 million 686.4 thousand tons of steel products.
“Kametstal was established on the basis of PJSC Dnipro Coke and Chemical Plant (DKKhZ) and the Centralized Steel Works of PJSC Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMK).
According to the third quarter of 2023, Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) owns 100% of the company’s shares.
The authorized capital of PJSC Kametstal is UAH 170.584 million.
Net sales of dollars by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) last week fell to $789.3 million from $891.8 million in the last week of last year, data on the regulator’s website showed on Friday. In the first half of the week, for which the central bank has already published the data, the purchase of currency by bank clients was growing: from a minimum of $56.52 million on Monday to $202.69 million on Wednesday.
As a result, the NBU on Wednesday weakened the official hryvnia exchange rate by 0.08%, or 3 kopecks, to a new low of UAH 38.1159/$1.
Nevertheless, on Thursday the demand weakened slightly, as a result the exchange rate strengthened by 0.20%, or by 7 kopecks, to 38.0412 UAH/$1, and on Friday, the last day of trading, the hryvnia weakened again slightly – by 0.10%, or by 3 kopecks, to 38.0775 UAH/$.
Overall, since Monday, the dollar has appreciated by 0.20%, and since the National Bank’s transition to the regime of managed flexibility on October 3, 2023, the dollar has become more expensive by 4.13%, or 1 UAH 51 kopecks. A pronounced trend towards weakening of the national currency began on November 26 last year, and since then the hryvnia has devalued by 5.73%.
In the cash market on Friday, the dollar rose by 1% to UAH 39.49/$1, returning to the pre-New Year dynamics after a rebound in the first days of the year.
Overall, the NBU’s net sales in December rose to about $3.57 billion from $2.46 billion in November, $3.34 billion in October and $2.69 billion in September. Last month, the Finance Ministry raised $5 billion in external financing, which boosted international reserves by 4.4% in December to $40 billion 507.9 million, the second highest in history after July 2023.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has included 66.65% of the authorized capital of Lybid Investment Union LLC, which owns the Ocean Plaza shopping mall in Kyiv, in the list of large-scale privatization targets.
According to Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, the decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
In October 2023, the State Property Fund of Ukraine appealed to the government with an initiative to include the state-owned stake (66.65%) in the Ocean Plaza shopping mall in the list of large-scale privatization objects. The Fund recommended setting the starting price for the sale of the state-owned stake in the mall at the level of its book value for the last reporting (annual) period.
At the end of 2022, the value of the state share amounted to UAH 1.32 billion (the carrying value of the entire asset was UAH 1.98 billion). At the same time, the Fund expects the sale of the lot to be more expensive than the book value.
As reported, on June 9, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers approved an order to transfer to the SPF a 66.65% share of the authorized capital of Lybid Investment Union LLC, which owns the mall, in the amount of 66.65%.
Previously, these corporate rights belonged to Russian businessmen Arkady and Igor Rotenberg, who are subject to sanctions, but in March 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court ruled to recover them in favor of the state.
Ocean Plaza was opened in Kyiv in December 2012 at 176 Antonovycha Street. Its total area is 165 thousand square meters. Investments in the facility amounted to approximately $300 million. UDP and K.A.N. Development LLC were partners in the development of the project.
The mall was sold to Arkady Rotenberg’s TPS Real Estate in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky indirectly acquired a 33.5% stake in Ocean Plaza through UPD Holdings Limited. In 2021, he sold his stake to entrepreneur Andriy Ivanov. The deal was finalized in the summer of 2023.
