The Cabinet of Ministers has provided funding for the state-owned enterprise National Project Air Express to stop the implementation of a project of passenger railway communication between Kyiv and Boryspil airport.
The government adopted the relevant resolution at a meeting on Wednesday.
According to an explanatory note to the document, this will minimize Ukraine’s losses associated with the termination of credit and commercial agreements concluded between the SOE National Project Air Express and the China National Complete Engineering Corporation together with the Export-Import Bank of China.
It is expected that as a result of the resumption of negotiations and termination of agreements, about $73.7 million can be returned to the Ukrainian side.
The explanatory note also states that at the moment the SOE National Project Air Express is not solvent, and in order for the enterprise to be able to terminate the contracts under the mentioned project, it is necessary to pay off debts on salaries and payments to the state budget, as well as accumulate funds for participation in litigation.
In particular, the state-owned enterprise National Project Air Express has arrears in wages – UAH 831,000, in payment of personal income tax – UAH 341,000, in military fee – UAH 28,500, and in single social security tax – UAH 222,000.
As reported, in Ukraine for a long time there was an unrealized national project Air Express – railway passenger communication Kyiv-Boryspil International Airport, construction of other infrastructure facilities in Kyiv region. For its implementation in 2011, under state guarantees, a loan agreement was concluded with the Export Import Bank of China in the amount of $372.3 million. CCEC was appointed as a general contractor for the turnkey construction works.
In June 2015, it became known that Ukraine and China were ready to discuss the possibility of redirecting credit funds provided for Air Express to other projects, and in March 2016, the Ministry of Infrastructure received the consent of Chinese partners to reformat the Air Express project.
On November 30, 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia launched an express train to Boryspil airport with a floating schedule of 21 to 30 voyages per day. To this end, about 4 km of non-electrified track was added to the existing railway infrastructure, including a 272 m long railway overpass over the M03 Kyiv-Kharkiv highway. Two passenger platforms were built. For operation on the route Central Kyiv Railway Station-Boryspil Airport, Ukrzaliznytsia repaired five rail buses manufactured by Pesa Bydgoszcz SA previously purchased for operation on other routes.
Businessman Rinat Akhmetov in Mariupol, where Metinvest’s metallurgical plants are located, announced his intention to continue investing heavily in the modernization and development of this largest Ukrainian mining and metallurgical holding.
“We continue to build, we continue to invest. This year, Metinvest will invest $1 billion in new production,” he said.
“We will build a new university, we will do everything in our power to ensure that there is a decent job in Mariupol, a decent salary, and most importantly, a happy life for people,” Akhmetov added.
The meeting is also attended by MP Vadim Novinsky, who is a co-owner of Metinvest.
Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov said that a decision, which had been made this year earlier than usual, to increase the holding’s salary by 10% on average from March 1 is made.
Ryzhenkov said that Metinvest has currently planned its investment program at $1.3-1.5 billion per year over the next three or four years, further investments will depend on how the company develops the green metallurgy.
The decarbonization trend is focusing on the steel industry, he said. However, there are already well-studied low-carbon technologies for direct reduced iron (DRI) and electrometallurgy (electric arc furnaces). Metinvest’s efforts in the field of decarbonization are connected not only with the climate, but also with renewal and entry into new markets (in terms of efficiency and product quality).
The updated technology strategy that the company continues to develop suggests different scenarios, but each of them includes a transition to low-carbon operations. The strategic goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90% by 2050 using a phased approach with key milestones in 2030 and 2040. The final stages of the strategy are expected to include the use of hydrogen.
Metinvest is the largest mining and metallurgical holding in Ukraine. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Metinvest’s main shareholders are the SCM group (71.25%) and Smart Holding (23.75%), which jointly manage the company.
Japan is urgently prepared to provide support to Ukraine with a loan of at least $100 million as a sign of support for it in the conditions of the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan said following a telephone conversation between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Prime Minister Kishida informed that Japan is urgently prepared to provide support with a loan of at least $100 million based on the request of the Ukrainian side, and President Zelensky expressed deep gratitude for this,” the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a report on the website after the February 15 conversation.
Japan has been paying close attention to the move to strengthen Russian troops around the Ukrainian border. Japan has consistently supported Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan said.
“The two leaders agreed to work together to ease tensions through diplomatic efforts,” the ministry said in the statement.
Concorde Consulting LLC, a member of the Concorde Capital group of companies, acting as an adviser on the privatization of PJSC President Hotel, has set its starting price at UAH 390 million, the company’s press service has reported.
The company said that they expect a significant increase in prices during the privatization auction due to the competition of bidders. At the same time, even a sale at the starting price will bring more benefits to the state than income in the form of annual dividends, according to Concorde Capital.
“There is no need to keep the President Hotel in state ownership. This is not a strategic facility. Today, the hotel is in a state that requires significant investments. In the near future, it can take a significant place on the hotel map of Kyiv precisely by attracting the necessary investments through privatization,” CEO of Concorde Capital Ihor Mazepa said.
According to him, the modernization of the hotel and its further operational management could create hundreds of jobs.
Thus, Concorde Capital recommends holding a competition for the privatization of the President Hotel in the near future.
Concorde Capital’s independent appraisal partners were Marcus Bureau, Creston GCG, BDO Consulting, Redcliffe Partners and Cushman&Wakefield.
Earlier, the starting price of the President Hotel at the privatization auction, according to UkraineInvest, was estimated at $12 million.
The volume of commercial output of Kyivsky cardboard paper mill (Obukhiv, Kyiv region), the leader in the pulp and paper industry in sales, grew by 42.4% in January compared to the same month in 2021, to UAH 668 .31 million.
According to the statistics of the UkrPapir association, provided to Interfax-Ukraine, at the same time, in kind, only the production of base paper for sanitary and hygienic products showed a slight increase (by 1%), to 7,570 tonnes.
The mill reduced the production of corrugated packaging by 7.5%, to 15.65 million square meters, cardboard – by 6.4%, to 17,830 tonnes (including container increased by 2.8% to 12,130 tonnes, boxboard reduced by 21.3% – to 5,700 tonnes.
Production of toilet paper in rolls fell by 8.2% to 33.19 million pieces.
According to the association, in general, enterprises of the industry in January 2021 increased the production of corrugated packaging by 3.5%, to 48 million square meters, paper and cardboard were reduced by 4.6%, to 64,000 tonnes, toilet paper production in rolls was reduced by 8.5%, to 54.65 million pieces.
Kyivsky cardboard paper mill is one of the largest enterprises in Europe for the production of cardboard and paper products with a staff of about 2,200 people. Products are sold to almost 700 companies in Ukraine, a number of CIS countries and far abroad.
As reported, the mill intends to invest up to EUR 20 million in the development of a new industrial site in Verkhniodniprovsk (Dnipropetrovsk region) for the production of corrugated products.
