In recent days, Europe has been covered by a wave of abnormal heat, which has led to forest fires in many southern countries, Western media reported on Wednesday.
The Portuguese authorities said that several fires led to the evacuation of about 700 people, about 120 needed medical attention, one local resident and one firefighter were seriously injured. 1,300 firefighters and several water-dropping aircraft were sent to fight the elements in the central region of the country, while about 1,000 firefighters are working in other regions.
In the southwest of France, a forest fire has engulfed an area of more than 1.2 thousand hectares near the commune of La Teste-de-Bouche, which is located south of Bordeaux. On Wednesday morning, about 6,000 people were evacuated from the area. Also, about 500 people were evacuated from the outskirts of the city of Landira. More than 800 firefighters are fighting fires in France.
The flames continue to be fought in Italy, which this summer faced the worst drought in 70 years. Firefighters are fighting a fire near Bolzano on Tuesday afternoon and a fire in Tuscany on Wednesday morning. Two helicopters and six teams of firefighters were sent to fight the second.
In Spain, abnormal heat is recorded in all regions, in some the temperature reached 44 degrees Celsius. In the west of the country, a forest fire destroyed 3.5 thousand hectares of land, more than 450 people were evacuated.
A forest fire was also recorded in southwestern Turkey near the resort of Datca on the Aegean Sea. At least nine water-dropping helicopters and five planes were dispatched to fight the fire.
In 2021, many European countries were also seriously affected by forest fires, which were the result of abnormal heat. Then a difficult situation with natural fires was observed in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Montenegro, Algeria and North Macedonia.
The international network of marketing companies Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) announced the acquisition of the Ukrainian production company for the creation and adaptation of content PEP Group, which will now join Locaria, Stagwell’s linguistic content agency.
“The head office of the PEP Group was and remains in Kyiv. It is very important that the interest of Western investors in Ukrainian companies remains, despite the current situation,” the press release says the words of the founder of PEP Group Mikhail Pimenov, who will remain in Locaria in the role of Executive Vice – President of Creative Content.
According to him, this suggests that the Ukrainian creative sector is competitive with the American and European ones.
“By removing traditional niche approaches and merging production and localization, we will be able to offer more compelling international content and greater efficiency,” said Lindsay Hong, COO of Locaria.
Based in Ukraine, PEP Group has been producing and adapting advertising content for leading international brands, including Kimberly-Clark, Colgate-Palmolive and Church & Dwight, for 12 years.
The Dutch PEP Group Holding B.V., whose beneficiary is Pimenov, owns Pipilats LLC in Ukraine, in which Pimenov was the direct owner until the end of last year. The revenue of LLC in 2020 amounted to UAH 5.96 million, net profit – UAH 1.25 million. The group’s website also lists offices in the Netherlands and Canada.
“Today’s marketers need scalable content solutions that enable global brands to connect with consumers in any market. The acquisition of PEP Group will further expand Locaria’s service offering,” said Mark Penn, CEO and CEO of Stagwell.
Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Locaria is an international language content agency that offers its services to the marketing and e-commerce teams of international brands, media agencies and creative productions to scale content and campaigns internationally.
Stagwell is a network of companies uniting over 12 thousand specialists in 34 countries. Its net revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was $526.6 million, up 22.8% year-on-year, while EBITDA rose 33.8% to $101.4 million.
The cost per square meter in the primary housing market of Ukraine in January-July 2022 increased by 11%, in the secondary – by 8%, OLX Real Estate reported.
“In January, the average prices for the” secondary “in Ukraine were at the level of 17.6 thousand UAH/sq. m., and in July this amount is already 19 thousand UAH/sq. m. If you plan to invest in an apartment in new building, the average cost per square meter will now cost UAH 25.4 thousand / sq. m, which is UAH 2.5 thousand more than at the beginning of the year before the war,” the portal’s press release says.
According to the resource, the cheapest apartments in new buildings in July are offered in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (17.8 thousand UAH/sq. m). The most affordable prices are also in Khmelnitsky (18.8 thousand UAH/sq. m) and Sumy (19.5 thousand UAH/sq. m) regions.
At the same time, the highest prices for new apartments were recorded in Kievskaya (UAH 30.4 thousand/sq. m.), Lvivskaya (UAH 33.5 thousand / sq. m.) and Dnepropetrovsk (UAH 33.6 thousand / sq. m. ) areas.
On the secondary market, the best prices per square meter in July are offered in Sumy (13 thousand UAH/sq. m), Dnepropetrovsk (16.3 thousand UAH/sq. m) and Ivano-Frankivsk regions (16.4 thousand UAH / sq. m). The most expensive housing in this segment is in Kyiv (UAH 34.7 thousand/sq. m), Lviv (UAH 27.4 thousand/sq. m), Vinnitsa (UAH 24.7 thousand/ sq. m) and Chernivtsi (24.6 thousand UAH / sq. m) regions.
According to OLX, the floor, layout, location, finishing, etc. factors also affect the final price. Thus, the average cost per square meter of a furnished apartment on the secondary market in July 2022 is 24.3 thousand UAH/sq. m, while in the new building – 44.7 thousand UAH / sq. m. m.
“As for finishing, a square meter in a secondary housing stock with European-quality repairs will cost an average of UAH 27 thousand, in an apartment with cosmetic repairs – UAH 21.8 thousand. If we consider the primary market, then the cost of a square meter in a house with European-quality repairs will cost an average of UAH 36.3 thousand, with cosmetic repairs – UAH 26.6 thousand, and for fine finishing – UAH 25.8 thousand,” the press release says.
At the same time, the most expensive repair option for both the secondary and primary housing markets is the author’s project. According to the portal, the cost of housing in this case will be 36.5 thousand UAH/sq. m and 53.1 thousand UAH/sq. m respectively.
Avis Ukraine, a company operating in the car rental and leasing market, has launched a new product – car leasing for individuals, according to its Facebook page.
“All our lives before that, we were engaged in organizing entire fleets of hundreds of cars on lease to large corporations. Before the war, we decided to start leasing cars for individuals as well, for several months we developed a product in order to bring it to the market enchantingly. Launched. Not enchanting. Absolutely not the way they wanted. Without a website and marketing. They just took it and launched it,” the company wrote.
She reports that the car can be taken on a long-term lease – for 2-3 years, while the monthly payment will be lower than when renting, and the company takes care of all issues with the acquisition, registration, maintenance, replacement and storage of tires, and even the sale .
“For example, a Toyota Yaris on a machine leased for two years will cost $399 per month,” Avis Ukraine reports.
“Avis Ukraine” has been operating in Ukraine since 1997, it is the representative of the world’s largest car rental corporation AVIS, which, according to information on its Facebook page, has 7642 branches in 185 countries of the world. Branches of “Avis Ukraine” were opened in Kyiv, Borispol, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lvov, Odessa, Uzhgorod and Kharkov.
A critical step towards ensuring the safe and reliable export of Ukrainian food products through the Black Sea was made on Wednesday in Istanbul at four-party talks involving Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN, UN Secretary General Antonio Guteres said.
“Today, an important and meaningful step has been taken towards a comprehensive agreement. Now more technical work will be required to materialize today’s progress,” he said at a briefing at the UN.
Guteres stressed that the goal of all parties is not just an agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, but an agreement for the whole world.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted “certain progress in the negotiations in Turkey on the restoration of food exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea.
“We are indeed making significant efforts to restore food supplies to the global market. I am grateful to the UN and Turkey for their respective efforts,” he said Wednesday evening in a traditional video message.
“The success of this story is needed not only by our state, but, without exaggeration, by the whole world. If the Russian threat to shipping in the Black Sea is removed, this will alleviate the severity of the global food crisis,” Zelensky said.
“The Ukrainian delegation reported to me that there is some progress. In the coming days, we will discuss the details with the UN Secretary General,” he said in conclusion.
