Arricano Real Estate Plc, a developer of shopping malls, continues to invest in the renovation of the Sun Gallery shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih and the construction of the Lukianivka shopping mall in Kyiv, said Margus Kurm, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arricano, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have not stopped any of our activities. We are going to invest in Kryvyi Rih to repair our property, as well as in the construction of the Lukianivka shopping mall and other planned projects,” Kurm assured.
As reported, the building of the “Solar Gallery” (Kryvyi Rih) was damaged on January 8, 2024, as a result of a Russian missile attack. According to experts, the repair work will cost more than UAH 30 million. Arricano has already invested UAH 17.5 million and needs to invest more to fully restore the mall.
According to Kurm, the total budget of the Lukianivka shopping mall is about $145 million, and the company has invested $84 million so far.
“This means that additional investments are needed to complete the project. And we also need to attract some financial institutions to lend to this project. Thus, the completion of this project mainly depends on how quickly we can stop the actual raiding of our other assets,” Kurm explained.
As reported, over the years of its operation in the Ukrainian market, Arricano has invested more than $600 million in the Ukrainian economy and continues to invest.
Arricano Real Estate Plc (Cyprus) specializes in the construction of shopping and entertainment centers and is one of the leading developers in the Ukrainian real estate market. It owns and manages five shopping centers in the country with a total area of 147.6 thousand square meters: “RayON and Prospekt in Kyiv, Sun Gallery in Kryvyi Rih, and City Mall in Zaporizhzhia. The company also owns 49.9% in Sky Mall (Kyiv) and land plots for further construction of three projects that are currently under design. The company is also engaged in the construction of the Lukianivka shopping center in Kyiv.
According to the earnings report, Arricano Real Estate Plc’s revenue for 2023 amounted to UAH 36 million 155.9 thousand, which is 52.8% higher than in 2022, while net profit increased 2.28 times to UAH 7 million 167.7 thousand.
According to the report, in the first half of 2022, the largest shareholder was Estonian Rauno Teder, who increased his stake to 70.86% from 15.92% after his father Hillar Teder transferred his stake to him. Dragon Capital Investments Limited and Jüri Põld were also named among the shareholders.
Arricano’s shares were listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2013 and delisted due to the war in 2023. In addition to Dragon Capital, Arricano has attracted foreign investment from various reputable international investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley clients.
The full text of the interview with Margus Kurm will be published on the main page of the agency’s website www.interfax.com.ua.
The global and domestic corn markets are showing a rise in prices due to the problems of growing this crop in South America, according to the analytical cooperative Pusk, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (AAC).
“Today, the situation on the corn market is determined by fundamental factors: problems in South America, which are the main suppliers of corn. Argentina had significant problems this year: droughts and pest damage. Brazil had excessive rainfall. These phenomena reduce the supply of corn in the world. The problems in South America are forcing many buyers to buy corn, and this is driving the market up,” the analysts explained.
In their opinion, buyers realize that in the new season key exporters will reduce production. In addition, the parallel rise in wheat prices also contributes to the rise in corn prices.
Experts expect Ukraine’s corn exports to reach 3 million tons in May. As of May 13, Ukraine has already exported 1.25 million tons of corn.
By next week, the conditional prices for Ukrainian corn will be about $170-178/ton on CPT deep water basis, $178-190/ton on CPT shallow water basis, $190-200/ton on DAP/CIF Constanta basis, $165-175/ton on DAP Vadul basis, according to Pusk.
Ukrgazvydobuvannya (UGV) has launched two more high-yield wells with a flow rate of 270,000 cubic meters and 120,000 cubic meters of gas per day, the press service of Naftogaz Group said Tuesday. According to it, the wells are 6,200 meters and 6,225 meters deep, drilled in the same field, in the same reservoir and almost simultaneously, so they are called “twins” in technical slang.
Thanks to the use of modern drilling machines, the skill of Ukrburgaz specialists and the reduction of accidents during the work, the wells were drilled in 8 months, whereas previously it took 2-3 years.
“New seismic and drilling data allowed our specialists to create a high-quality 3D model, which is one of the best in “Ukrgasvydobuvannya” and allows us to effectively plan the directions of further development of this field. The works on the field continue, and drilling of the next appraisal and production well will be completed soon”, – Oleg Tolmachev, Head of UGV, noted.
In total, since the beginning of 2024, UGV has already put into operation seven new high-yield wells, including twin wells.
As reported, UGV launched 86 new wells during 2023, of which 24 – with an initial flow rate of more than 100 thousand cubic meters.
In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas (marketable), which is 3% less than in 2021. At the end of 2023, the company’s marketable gas production amounted to 13.224 billion cubic meters, which is 0.679 billion cubic meters more than in 2022. The target for 2024 is 13.75 billion cubic meters.
Naftohaz Ukrainy owns 100% of Ukrhazvydobuvannya.
A group of banks and investment companies that hold securities trading licenses have notified the regulator, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), of their readiness to create a new stock exchange amid the threat of withdrawal from the market of two of the three existing exchanges, the PFTS and the Ukrainian Exchange (UX).
According to a copy of the letter sent last week to the head of the NSSMC, available to the agency, the signatories include, in particular, the Univer Investment Group, Dominant Trade, Daliz Finance, AMC Vsesvit, Altbank, Dzherelo, BTS Broker, AMC Ozon, AMC OTP Capital, Reisen Ukraine, and Profi-T Asset.
It is noted that among the main tasks of the new trade organizer are modern technological solutions for the work of online brokers, in particular, for online trading and investing through Diya-OVGZ, the development of the derivatives market, repos and swaps, and liquidity support.
“Under the current conditions, the new exchange will be able to take advantage of, among other things, experienced professionals and modern trading technologies,” the letter states, although, according to Interfax-Ukraine, there are no formalized agreements with the PFTS and UX, which are trying to stay on the market, in this regard.
It is specified that the process of creating a new exchange will take place in several stages, the first of which is to form the team of the future exchange and obtain a license, while the second will involve some private banks – Universal Bank (mono), Globus and others.
It is assumed that at the third stage, the capital of the new exchange may include state-owned banks, such as PrivatBank, Oschadbank, and Sense, which are interested in creating a high-tech trading organizer, followed by international financial organizations and foreign commercial entities.
The authors of the letter ask the NSSMC to support this initiative.
As reported, in late March, the NSSMC warned market participants that two of the three Ukrainian stock exchanges – PFTS (Kyiv) and UX – were at risk of losing their licenses due to violations of license conditions and suggested considering possible solutions, including the creation of a new exchange and voluntary surrender of exchange licenses.
“We have called the market to ensure that the participants most interested in the existence of this infrastructure understand the consequences for themselves, as many products are built on it. If the participants are satisfied that only one exchange will remain on the market (Perspectiva – IF-U), if they do not need competition among exchanges, the regulator will agree with this. If not, if they lack one exchange, if they want to hedge risks by creating another exchange, then make two, three, five – as many as necessary,” Yaroslav Shlyakhov, a member of the NSSMC, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine in April.
According to the NSSMC, the volume of trading in financial instruments on Ukrainian stock exchanges increased 2.7 times in 2023 to UAH 436.43 billion, of which 93% was accounted for by domestic government bonds. The share of PFS in the total trading volume was 62.9%, Perspectyva – 33.7%, and UX – 3.4%, but UX is the leader in terms of the number of transactions and instruments.
According to the Commission, in the unorganized market in 2023, the trading volume doubled to UAH 925.11 billion.
The PFTS Stock Exchange was founded in 1997. For a long time, PFTS was the market leader, but dissatisfied with the quality of its work, leading traders, together with the RTS, created the UX in 2008, which started operating in the spring of 2009 and was the first to launch “Internet trading.”
The Perspectiva Stock Exchange (Dnipro) received its license in March 2008, and before that it had been operating as a trade information system of the same name for almost two years.
Astarta Agro Holding plans to pay dividends for 2023 in the amount of EUR0.5 per share for a total of EUR12.5 million, which is in line with the previous year.
As stated in the company’s announcement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the relevant draft decision has been included in the agenda of the shareholders’ meeting to be held in Nicosia (Cyprus) on June 4 this year.
Other issues include: adoption of a new remuneration policy; confirmation of PriceWaterhouseCoopers as auditor for 2023; and instructing the board of directors to elect an auditor for 2024.
As reported, Astarta first paid EUR12.155 million in dividends in June 2021 based on the results of 2020 in the same amount as proposed now – EUR0.5 per share. In the military year of 2022, the company refused to pay them, and then paid them in 2023.
In 2023, Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93 million.
Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchik’s family currently owns about 40.66% of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and another 2.62% of shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
Astarta’s shares are currently quoted at PLN26.6 per share (about EUR6.23 per share), while about a year ago, when the dividend decision was approved, the rate was PLN32.80 per share (about EUR7.28 per share).
In 2024, the Karpaty Research and Mechanical Plant (Lviv region) will produce 300 grain carriers at the request of the USAID Economic Support for Ukraine project, which will account for 45% of the company’s annual workload, the donor organization’s press service reported on Facebook.
The USAID reminded that in 2023, at their request, the plant manufactured 50 such cars for one of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, JV Nibulon LLC (Mykolaiv). In 2024, the Project ordered 300 railcars for other companies involved in the export of agricultural products.
According to the report, OMZ Karpaty produces three railcars per day weighing 23.5 tons. The main component of the car body is rolled metal of European origin purchased from Ukrainian suppliers. The rest of the components, such as the railcar axle, solid-rolled wheel, side frame, beam, shock and traction device, brake equipment and other parts, are made in Ukraine.
“During a full-scale war, orders for grain cars account for 75% of what we do. Thanks to the USAID project, we received an order last year and fulfilled it on time: we manufactured 50 railcars. This means that 650 of our employees had jobs, received salaries, and we, as a business, paid taxes to the budgets of various levels on time. This is one example of how international assistance works for the Ukrainian economy,” said Oleksandra Bodor, Marketing Director of OMZ Karpaty.
According to him, the plant currently has a portfolio of orders through August 2024. In addition to grain carriers, another promising area is the production of cement carriers needed to restore Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and housing stock.
“In 2023, all (three) railcar manufacturing plants in Ukraine produced 1967 railcars. OMZ Karpaty became the leader: the company produced 567 railcars for the Ukrainian market, which is 5% more than in 2022. Today, the company employs more than 650 people,” the donor organization said.
As reported, the USAID project is implementing the Agricultural Resilience and Livelihoods Program (AGRI-Ukraine), with a budget of $350 million. Within the framework of the AGRI-Ukraine initiative, the USAID project cooperates with public and private enterprises to attract investment in grain transportation and transshipment.
