The mobile network operator Kyivstar has increased its total income by 11.6% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, to UAH 6.502 billion, the company’s press service said with reference to its quarterly report on Thursday.
According to the report, in the specified period, Kyivstar increased its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 16.9%, to UAH 4.411 billion, thereby increasing EBITDA margin by 3.1 percentage points (pp), to 67.8%.
Revenue from mobile services of the operator in the third quarter amounted to UAH 6.065 billion, which is 11% higher than in the same period in 2019.
Data traffic consumption increased by 50%, to 5.953 GB per subscriber. Consumption of voice services also increased – by 9.7% to 621 minutes per subscriber.
The number of Kyivstar mobile Internet users grew by 3.4%, to 16.8 million, and the total number of active subscribers by the end of the third quarter amounted to 25.8 million, which is 2.2% less than a year earlier.
The operator explained the decrease in the subscriber base relative to the third quarter of 2019 by the partial suspension of the retail network during quarantine.
According to the company, average revenue per user (ARPU) for mobile communications rose by 14.5%, to UAH 78.
“Forced social distancing during the quarantine period influenced the growth in demand for digital solutions. So, in the third quarter of 2020, the number of users of the My Kyivstar self-service system increased by 52% compared to the third quarter of 2019,” the operator said.
Revenues from fixed-line services grew by 19.9%, to UAH 399 million. At the same time, the number of subscribers increased 10%, to 1.1 million ARPU of fixed-line internet increased 9.7%, to UAH 81.
Capital investments for the reporting period amounted to UAH 1.185 billion, which is 13.5% less than in the same period last year.
In general, in January-September 2020, Kyivstar increased its revenue by 11.4%, to UAH 18.641 billion and EBITDA – by 17.6%, to UAH 12.527 billion, while the EBITDA margin increased by 3.6 pp, to 67.9%.
The operator’s capital investments (excluding license costs) for the first nine months of 2020 grew by 22.7%, to UAH 4.299 billion.
To influence the State Property Fund of Ukraine to form a capable Supervisory Board with independent directors, as required by the legislation on joint-stock companies and state property management, asks the President of Ukraine in his address to him the management of JSC “Khmelnitskoblenergo”. This is stated in the address to Vladimir Zelensky as a guarantor of the execution of the Constitution and the laws of Ukrainse
«We ask you to pay attention to the situation with JSC Khmelnytskoblenergo in order to prevent the loss of one of Ukraine’s most important strategic state enterprises, a successful energy company, a leader among public sector enterprises and an extremely important critical infrastructure, matters of national security depend on the normal operation of this enterprise. What is at stake here is a question of ensuring implementation of norms of the current legislation on joint-stock companies and management of state assets, especially with regard to the selection and appointment independent directors to the Supervisory board of Khmelnytskoblenergo», – said in a statement.
On April 28, 2020, the Supervisory Board, consisting exclusively of SPFU employees (two of whom are non-authorised members), illegally, with numerous violations of applicable laws, decided to change the acting General Director of the Company. This decision is made secretly, without notifying the representatives of the Company and without the participation of the Secretary of the Supervisory Board. The minutes of the meeting were handed over only to the supposed “newly appointed” acting General Director, and the Company was granted access to the same minutes the only a month later, after numerous appeals, demands, and parliamentary as well as legal inquiries. From the moment of adoption of this specific decision the SPF removes itself from management of the Company, without making any decisions and not allowing the Supervisory board it controls to make such decisions.
«Currently, the SPF is not taking any measures to form a new Supervisory Board. At the same time, the SPF completely ignores the reform of corporate governance in Ukraine, which requires the appointment of independent directors – i.e. members of the Supervisory Board who are not related to shareholders – in accordance with Art. 53 of the Law of Ukraine “On Joint Stock Companies” and Art. 112 of the Law of Ukraine “On Management of State Property, – noticed in the statement.
I»n order to implement this flawed decision to change the management of the Company, the leadership of the SPF is ready to sacrifice a successful strategic enterprise and even jeopardise its very existence. The question arises whether the actions of the SPF are anything but corruption in this regard?», – said in the appeal
The transition a new financial year in the absence of a Supervisory Board will actually put an end to the financing of all activities of the Company from January 1, 2021, a date worryingly just two months away. If that happens we will see the emergence of problems in the energy supply of consumers in Khmelnytsky region, among which are military units and the only missile brigade in Ukraine. The SPF, although a body authorised to manage state property, in no way seeks to preserve and improve such property. In this case the opposite is true, the SPF deliberately tries to worsen its condition, neglects its management functions and acts only in the private interests of its management despite this endangering the country’s defence capabilities.
In order to preserve a strategically important enterprise, and to continue its successful and highly profitable activity, the financial performance of which exceeds the performance of all other state energy distribution companies combined, management Khmelnitskoblenergo appeals to President of Ukraine VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY as the Guarantor of the implementation of the Constitution and Laws of Ukraine, with the following requests:
1. Initiate, within the framework of current legislation, the fair and open selection of candidates for the positions of members of the Supervisory Board of JSC Khmelnytskoblenergo, including independent directors, including representatives of international organizations, independent experts and specialists, and oblige the State Property Fund of Ukraine to conduct such selection in accordance to the requirements of Art. 53 of the Law of Ukraine “On Joint Stock Companies” and Art. 11.2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Management of State Property”;
2. To oblige the State Property Fund of Ukraine to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting to raise the issue of electing a new Supervisory Board of Khmelnytskoblenergo, and to send its representatives to that Extraordinary General Meeting with the order to vote for the election of new members of the Supervisory Board.
Ukrzaliznytsia by the end of 2020 expects to see a loss of UAH 12-14 billion.
“My personal vision: we will end this year with a loss of UAH 12-14 billion,” Head of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC Volodymyr Zhmak said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
At the same time, he said that the company counts on the support of international financial institutions.
“We are counting on our partners from the financial sector, first of all, international financial institutions,” he added.
In January-June 2020, Ukrzaliznytsia saw a net loss of UAH 8.792 billion, while for the same period in 2019 its net profit amounted to UAH 1.065 billion. At the same time, Ukrzaliznytsia’s net income from the sale of products (goods and services) in January-June 2020 amounted to UAH 35.623 billion (a decrease of 19.42% compared to the same period in 2019).
The trading corporation Posco International together with Nonghyup Feed, the largest importer of feed grain in Korea, supplied 68,000 tonnes of feed wheat from Ukraine to South Korea.
According to a report on Posco International’s website, out of 68,000 tonnes, 41,000 tonnes were sent through the Ukrainian grain terminal Posco.
“This food import is important because this is the first case of a stable supply of high quality feed grain to South Korea, secured by investments from a domestic company,” the company’s release stated.
Posco International expects that with the first delivery of feed wheat, the company will build a stable national grain procurement system using its own export terminal, expanding imports of wheat and maize.
The company indicated that in September 2019, Posco International completed the construction of an export grain terminal capable of shipping 2.5 million tonnes of grain per year at Mykolaiv Maritime Merchant Port.
It is noted that Posco International’s agricultural business is expanding with the delivery of major grains such as wheat, maize, soybeans and barley, but it all started with rice. The trade volume increased from 840,000 tonnes in 2015 to about 7.5 million tonnes in 2020.
The State Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) intends to repair 6,800 km of roads in 2021, said head of the agency Oleksandr Kubrakov.
“In 2020, the road sector has become a state priority. The program for 2020 envisages 4,000 km of roads. In 2021, we plan to repair and build more than 6,000 km of roads,” he said during an online presentation of the first public-private partnership program on Thursday.
The mobile operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell, together with Huawei, have launched 4G at 23 more stations of Kyiv metro and in the tunnels between them.
According to the joint press release of the operators, in general, since October 28, the high-speed mobile Internet of three operators has been operating at 45 out of 46 underground stations.
4G will appear at the last Teremky station during December.
The launch of the 4G network in the metro began in March this year from the Akademmistechko station and continued gradually.
“It is interesting that almost 300,000 subscribers of all three operators use 4G Internet every day on average. Together, subscribers of mobile operators have already used more than 400 terabytes of traffic in the metro. This volume would be enough, for example, for a continuous viewing high quality video for 30 years,” the release notes.
For 4G operation in the metro Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell use joint equipment from Huawei, but their own frequencies in accordance with licenses. Frequencies are used in two bands: 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz. According to the operators, the average 4G speed in the metro exceeds 40 Mbps.
4G, 4G INTERNET, 4G MOBILE, 4G NETWORK, KYIV METRO, KYIVSTAR, LIFECELL, MOBILE OPERATORS, VODAFONE
