Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group has announced a tender offer to buy back up to $70 million of its Eurobonds due 2025 and 2026.
According to a stock exchange announcement by Metinvest B.V., the 2025 Eurobonds will be redeemed at a price ranging from 85% to 92% of the face value, depending on the results of the Dutch auction, while the redemption price of the 2026 bonds has not been determined and will depend on the results of the auction.
The bonds will be purchased for cash.
The offer is valid from April 29, 2024 and expires at 16:00 London time on May 8, 2024.
The Eurobonds due June 17, 2025 were issued in the amount of EUR300 million with a coupon of 5.625%, and the Eurobonds due April 23, 2026 were issued in the amount of $505 million with a coupon of 8.5%. Currently, they are outstanding by $234.195 million and $493.871 million, respectively.
“The rationale for the offer (to repurchase – IF-U) is to use the group’s liquidity outside Ukraine to actively manage the company’s debt burden, mitigate cash outflows for debt service, improve the group’s overall debt position, and reduce liquidity pressure in relation to the upcoming maturities of the 2025 bonds and 2026 bonds, given the group’s continued turbulent operating environment,” the tender offer explains.
It adds that the ongoing war in Ukraine, coupled with volatile commodity prices, presents unprecedented challenges for the company and its subsidiaries.
In addition, although as at 31 December 2023 the company and its subsidiaries outside Ukraine had sufficient cash balances to meet the company’s scheduled interest payment obligations for the foreseeable future, there are certain restrictions on the transfer of cash from its Ukrainian subsidiaries in accordance with the current decisions of the National Bank of Ukraine. And there is no guarantee that these restrictions will be lifted, the document says.
In turn, the proposals give bondholders the opportunity to reduce their risks in the context of the ongoing war. The group’s operations remain subject to a number of risks that are beyond management’s control, including, in particular, an increase in the intensity of Russian attacks on the front line; escalation of attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities and, as a result, disruption of the availability of the energy system for the group’s operations; uncertainty about the sustainability of Black Sea shipping; staff shortages due to mobilization in Ukraine; and volatile prices for key products.
These risks may adversely affect the price of Eurobonds in the future, the tender justification states.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. Its businesses are located in Ukraine – in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions – as well as in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Receipts of taxes, fees and mandatory payments to the general fund of the state budget of Ukraine, according to operational data, in April amounted to UAH 153.6 billion compared to UAH 164.3 billion in March and UAH 184.8 billion in February, such operational data (as of 16:00 on April 30) reported the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.
According to its data, the most of all reduced receipts of payments from the State Tax Service – to 59.7 billion UAH from 105.7 billion UAH in March and 107.4 billion UAH in February, which is due to high payments in previous months of income tax, in particular, by banks, as well as advance payments.
It is pointed out that in April, income tax revenues amounted to only UAH 3.2 billion against UAH 60.1 billion in March and UAH 61.0 billion in February, but in April, part of its profit of UAH 38.64 billion was transferred to the budget by the National Bank, although the Ministry of Finance does not mention it in the summary.
As for other taxes, personal income tax and military levy increased to UAH 16.5 billion (UAH 15.7 billion) in April, rents to UAH 5.5 billion (UAH 1.4 billion), and excise tax to UAH 11.5 billion (UAH 9.2 billion).
Value added tax also increased to UAH 22.8 billion (UAH 18.0 billion): collected UAH 34.8 billion (UAH 29.0 billion), refunded – UAH 12.0 billion (UAH 11.1 billion).
Receipts from the State Customs Service increased in April to UAH 48.9 billion from UAH 45.8 billion in March and UAH 39.8 billion in February. As the head of the specialized parliamentary committee, Daniil Getmantsev, pointed out on Tuesday, about 2.5 billion hryvnias of additional revenue came from the unblocking of the Polish border over the past week.
The Finance Ministry pointed out that the monthly revenue estimate of the general fund of the state budget, according to operational data, was exceeded by 29.5% (+35 billion UAH), including by the State Tax Service – by 7.9% (+4.4 billion UAH), while the State Customs Service – by 14.5% (+6.2 billion UAH).
In addition, the general fund of the state budget received UAH 2.7 billion of international aid in the form of grants in April, compared to UAH 3.1 billion in March and UAH 31 billion in February.
“In general, according to operational data, at the end of April 2024, the general and special funds of the state budget received UAH 200.8 billion (UAH 225.9 billion in March and UAH 229.0 billion in February) of taxes, fees and other payments. In addition, about UAH 40.1 billion (in March – UAH 39.0 billion) in the form of ERUs was received by the Pension Fund and social insurance funds,” the ministry added, thanking taxpayers for your contribution to the support of the Ukrainian army and financial stability of the country.
Data on expenditures in April are not yet available.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the state budget for 2024 with a deficit of UAH 1.57 trillion, or 20.6% of projected GDP. Revenues of the state budget-2024 are set at UAH 1.77 trillion (not taking into account possible grant aid), expenditures – UAH 3.36 trillion at an average annual exchange rate of UAH 40.7/$1.
State budget-2023 revenues amounted to UAH 2.67 trillion, of which grant aid amounted to UAH 0.43 trillion. Cash expenditures of the state budget for the past year exceeded UAH 4 trillion, and the deficit amounted to UAH 1.33 trillion at an average annual exchange rate of about 36.6 UAH/$1.
Earlier Experts Club analytical center and Maxim Urakin released a video analysis of how the GDP of the world’s countries has changed in recent years, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=BsZmIUERHSBJrO_3 Subscribe to Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub.
BUDGET, decreased in April, EXPERTS CLUB, GDP, MACROECONOMICS, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, TAXES, UKRAINE, URAKIN
Initial registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in January-April this year increased by 35% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to 22.2 thousand units, the Ukravtoprom association reported on its Telegram channel.
Thus, the growth rate of demand for new passenger cars slowed compared to the same period last year and amounted to 48% in the first quarter.
At the same time, in April, according to the Association, more than 5.7 thousand new passenger cars were registered in Ukraine, which is 11% more than in the same month in 2023, but compared to March this year, registrations decreased by 14%.
The TOP-5 leaders in new car sales in Ukraine include Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen, BMW, Skoda According to Ukravtoprom, the Japanese brand Toyota holds the market leadership with 856 registrations (805 units in April last year), Renault is second with 536 cars (543 units), Volkswagen is third with 468 cars sold, which was fourth with 417 cars in April 2023.
In addition, BMW with 405 units and Skoda with 317 cars were in the TOP-5 in April.
The bestseller in the Ukrainian new car market remains the compact crossover Renault Duster, which sold 484 units in April.
As reported with reference to the Ukravtoprom Association, in 2023, the first registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine increased by 60.6% compared to 2022, to almost 61 thousand units.
In January-March 2024, PJSC Ukrnafta sold 52.6 million liters of fuel using coupons and NAFTACard, including 18.7 million liters in March.
According to the company’s Facebook post, a total of 140.4 million liters of fuel have been sold since the beginning of 2023, when the company launched its own B2B program.
The number of customers – public and private enterprises – has exceeded 3,000, and regional sales offices have been opened in Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Dnipro, Lutsk, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Lviv, Cherkasy, and Mukachevo.
The company has also signed six inter-company agreements for coupons and nine for cards. Ukrnafta’s coupons are accepted at 866 filling stations and cards at 1003 filling stations across the country, including such networks as SOCAR, Ovis, VST, etc.
As reported, in 2023 Ukrnafta increased oil and condensate production by 3% (by 39.9 thousand tons) compared to 2022, to 1 million 409.9 thousand tons, and gas production by 5.8% (by 60.4 million cubic meters), to 1 billion 97.4 million cubic meters.
The company’s strategic goal is to double oil and natural gas production to 3 million tons and 2 billion cubic meters by 2027, respectively.
“Ukrnafta is the largest oil company in Ukraine and operates a national network of 537 filling stations, of which 456 are in operation. The company is implementing a comprehensive program to restore operations and update the format of its filling stations. Since February 2023, Ukrnafta has been issuing its own fuel coupons and NAFTAKarta cards, which are sold to legal entities and individuals through Ukrnafta-Postach LLC.
Ukrnafta’s largest shareholder is Naftogaz of Ukraine with a 50%+1 share. On November 5, 2022, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to transfer to the state a share of corporate rights of the company owned by private owners, which is now managed by the Ministry of Defense.
More than 74 thousand new businesses were opened by Ukrainians in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Unified State Register. This is 33.6% more than in the first quarter of last year. Most businesses are opened in Kyiv and Dnipro regions. Entrepreneurs are leading the way in trade, personal services, and IT.
A record 74,050 new businesses were opened by Ukrainians in the first quarter of 2024. This is a third more than last year and 18% more than before the full-scale invasion in 2021.
The capital has remained the undisputed leader in the number of new cases in recent years. In the first quarter of this year, 10,252 new businesses were registered in Kyiv, accounting for 13.8% of the total. Dnipropetrovs’k region is in second place with 6.8 thousand newly established businesses. Kyiv region is in the bottom three: 5.7 thousand new sole proprietorships.
A quarter of newly registered sole proprietorships are engaged in retail trade, which is the most popular area, unchanged over the past 4 years. Personal services and computer programming are also among the most popular business areas among Ukrainian entrepreneurs.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/foponomics-2024-1
individual entrepreneur, NEW BUSINESS, Unified State Register
For the first time in history, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has created a digital personality using artificial intelligence technologies to officially comment on consular information for the media, the ministry’s press service reports.
“The Foreign Ministry’s representative for consular affairs, Victoria Shi, is based on a real person – Ukrainian singer and influencer Rosalie Nombre, who agreed to participate in the MFA project pro bono and act as a prototype for the representative. The project team filmed and digitized her. It is important to note that the consular representative and her real prototype are two different people, and only the digital person Victoria Shi makes official comments on behalf of the MFA’s consular service,” the statement said.
AI has already posted a congratulatory video message on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
“My name symbolizes our main goal – the victory of Ukraine, and my surname is the artificial intelligence that created me. My job will be to provide the public with up-to-date and verified information from the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. I will inform journalists about the work of consuls to protect the rights and interests of Ukrainian citizens abroad, respond to incidents or emergencies, and other news,” the statement reads.
Victoria Shi’s comments will be published on the official resources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, its website and social media pages, and will be transmitted to journalists by the MFA’s press service.
“Using an AI-generated digital persona for consular commentary is primarily about saving time and resources for the MFA. Real diplomats will be able to be more effective and focus on other tasks to help citizens,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The minister also emphasized that the active use of artificial intelligence technologies in the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not a whim, but a requirement of wartime. After all, in order to achieve the results necessary for the country, it is necessary to speed up all processes and be one step ahead.
“The creation of a digital consular representative is part of a broader strategy for the systematic implementation of advanced technologies using artificial intelligence in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Diplomacy, not only in Ukraine but also around the world, has always been a conservative sphere that was the last to innovate. We are changing this. Ukrainian diplomacy is now strengthening its capabilities and making a technological leap that no other diplomatic service in the world has ever made,” the minister added.
It is noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also provided several levels of protection for Victoria Shi from digital fakes. Each original video of the consular representative has a QR code that leads to the text version of the same commentary on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In case of absence of such a QR code or transition to any other website, the video is not considered authentic.
In addition, a consular representative is not a substitute for a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. After the expiration of the term of office of Oleg Nikolenko, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already held a competition to fill this vacancy. The winner has already been selected and is undergoing the necessary special checks.
The AI consular representative of the MFA of Ukraine project was implemented by the team of The Game Changers NGO with the assistance of Nazovni Tech.