Kormotech LLC (Lviv region), a large Ukrainian manufacturer of cat and dog feed, has signed a three-year contract with the Norwegian online store Dyrekassen on the supply of a pet ration. According to a press release of Kormotech, through the Dyrekassen online store, an exclusive distributor, the company plans to sell 18 tonnes of feed by the end of 2020. It is planned to sell another 100 tonnes of products over the next two years.
Together with a new partner, Kormotech is also working to ensure that after lockdown Optimeal rations are sold in garden centers in Norway and Sweden. This is about 220 stores.
The company said that these are dry and wet rations for cats and dogs under the Optimeal brand in the super premium segment. They are made according to the Swiss fresh meat technology.
Kormotech said that Norway has become the 29th pet export country.
“We are actively working to enter export markets throughout Scandinavia. These are countries with very high quality requirements for products. We have overcome similar complexity procedures to enter the U.S. and UK markets. Kormotech is on the way to getting into the top five world manufacturers of pet feed,” the company said, citing CEO of Kormotech Rostyslav Vovk.
Kormotech LLC is the leading Ukrainian producer of feed for cats and dogs. The company exports products to 29 countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Iran and Chile.
The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Olena and Rostyslav Vovk.
Bank of America (BofA) analysts expect a decline in Ukraine’s GDP in 2020 by 5.6%, according to a review of the investment bank.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during Freedom of Speech of Savik Shuster program on Ukraine TV Channel later on Friday presented a brief strategy of gradual weakening of the quarantine for the period from early May to early July.
The decline of Ukraine’s real GDP in 2020 could be 6-8%, the ICU investment group has said.
The lack of government support for the creative industry during the quarantine period can lead to massive unemployment in the industry and a drop in GDP, Head of the Verkhovna Rada committee for humanitarian and information policy MP Oleksandr Tkachenko has told Interfax-Ukraine.
Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Ukraine’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Stable from Positive and affirmed the IDR at ‘B’.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has worsened the forecast of the balance of payments in 2020 to a deficit of $1.1 billion from a surplus of $3.2 billion, but expects its surplus to be restored as early as 2021.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revised downwards the assessment of the pace of real GDP of Ukraine for 2020 from 3.5% growth to 5% decline, while improving the expectations for its growth in 2021 from 4% to 4.3%.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the Ukrainians to continue observing quarantine restrictions throughout the May holidays so that the state authorities could begin softening the quarantine starting May 11
The drop in gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in January-February 2020 amounted to 0.2%, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said that the Cabinet of Ministers will present its plan and steps to restore the economy after the turning point in the development of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is seen and which the country is moving towards in a moderate and smooth pace.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects that Ukraine’s GDP would fall by 7.7% in 2020 and grow by 3.6% in 2021, according to the World Economic Outlook published by the IMF on Tuesday.
Consumer prices in Ukraine in April grew by 0.8%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
At the same time, in April last year, price growth was higher: it was 1%, therefore, inflation in April 2020 year-over-year slowed to 2.1% from 2.3% in March and 4.1% in 2019 .
The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine has decided to cut the key policy rate from 10% to 8%, the NBU said. The NBU expects that the key policy rate to be reduced further, to 7% in the current year.
Industrial production in Ukraine in March 2020 decreased by 7.7% compared to March 2019, while in February the decline was 1.5%, in January 5.1%, in December 2019 also 7.7%, the State Statistics Service has said.
Ukrainians, who occurred in the South Republic of Africa during quarantine, have asked Foreign Minister of Ukraine to help them to return to the motherland. According to the submission letter, which is in disposal of Interfax-Ukraine, there are a woman with a chronic disease who needs prescribed medicine, seventh month pregnant woman, a woman with one year old child are among those who wish come back home.
“Most visas have expired long ago…The Ukrainian Embassy in South Africa provides us with as much information as possible, but nothing depends on them,” reads the letter.
Ukrainians ask to provide them guarantees for a speed returning home.
“We are ready to undergo self-isolation under the program Diy Vdoma. But first, we need to reach home. There are our compatriots in the neighboring African countries. Why can’t they grab us together all in all?,” reads the text of the letter.
The net profit of UkrSibbank (Kyiv) at the end of 2019 amounted to UAH 2.58 billion, which is 3% less than in 2018 (UAH 2.66 billion), according to the annual report of the financial institution. According to the bank, its net profit in the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 33% compared to the same indicator in 2018 and amounted to UAH 507.42 million.
UkrSibbank’s net interest income for 2019 compared to 2018 increased by 8.4%, to UAH 4.21 billion, while the expenses on creating reserves for expected credit losses amounted to UAH 153.29 million, whereas in 2018 the bank, on the contrary, received an additional UAH 121.28 million.
Bank assets over the past year increased by 2%, to UAH 53.20 billion, in particular, loans and customer debt decreased by 18.2%, to UAH 21.37 billion, and the volume of securities and investments in associates and subsidiaries increased 5.3 times, to UAH 13.33 billion.
The liabilities of UkrSibbank for the indicated period increased by 2.5%, to UAH 46.42 billion, including the amount of customer funds in the bank that grew by 10.5%, to UAH 45.42 billion.
The equity capital of UkrSibbank for 2019 increased by UAH 53.58 million, to UAH 6.78 billion, and the size of its charter capital remained unchanged being UAH 5.07 billion.
UkrSibbank was founded in 1990. At the beginning of the year, its shareholders were BNP Paribas S.A (France), which owns 60% of the bank’s charter capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with 40%.
According to the NBU, as of January 1, 2020, UkrSibbank ranked ninth in terms of total assets among 75 operating banks in Ukraine.
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator in January-March 2020 increased total operating revenue by 16.1% year-over-year, to UAH 5.95 billion, according to a report of the shareholder in the company, Veon international group, posted on its official website.
“The increase was primarily driven by mobile data, voice and fixed line revenue growth owing to continuous 4G roll out, increase traffic and pricing. In addition, the local currency also observed an improvement against the USD when compared with the same period last year,” Veon said.
According to Veon, in the first quarter, Kyivstar increased its EBITDA by 25.35% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 4.04 billion. EBITDA margin increased 5 percentage points (pp), to 67.9%.
Revenue from mobile services increased by 16.1%, to UAH 5.53 billion.
Veon reported that Kyivstar’s mobile Internet coverage reached 77%, while 4G mobile penetration in the operator’s network reached 30%.
ARPU of mobile communications grew to UAH 70.30, or 17.43%, the consumption of voice services (MoU) – by 3%, to 603 minutes.
Overall, Kyivstar’s mobile customer base decreased slightly by 1.2% to 26.0 million.
“The decrease was a result of demographic trends in Ukraine and the reduction in multi SIM users. The number of our mobile data customers in Ukraine increased by 10% year-on-year, mainly due to an increased 4G/ LTE user penetration,” Veon said in its report.
Fixed line revenue increased by 16.86%, to UAH 384 million, fixed broadband ARPU increased by 7.63% to UAH 81. Fixed broadband customer base grew by 9.99%, to 1 million customers.
Capex for the reporting period increased by 37.11% (excluding the cost of licenses for 4G communications) and amounted to UAH 1.347 billion.
Basically, the funds were used to roll out 4G networks and provide high quality services. The 4G network of Kyivstar, according to the operator, covers 11,000 settlements, and almost 79% of the population of Ukraine has access to new mobile technologies.
“We have significantly increased investments in communication quality and new technologies. The company also mobilized its resources to help the country overcome the coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic as soon as possible. We provided UAH 30 million in charity support for the purchase of medical equipment saving the lives of seriously ill patients. Another telecom services for UAH 30 million were provided to support quarantined subscribers,” Kyivstar President Alexander Komarov said, being quoted in a press release of the Ukrainian operator.
In the first quarter of 2020, changes occurred in Kyivstar’s corporate governance: the company attracted external independent advisers: Naftogaz Ukrainy Executive Board Chairman Andriy Kobolev, Board Chairman of the Darnitsa Group Dmytro Shimkiv and co-founder of the Diligent Capital Partners investment fund Dan Pasko to regular meetings of the supervisory board.
“The experience and expertise of independent advisers are intended to help the company better respond to the challenges of the industry and the needs of society,” Kyivstar said.
In January-March 2020, Kyivstar paid taxes and other payments to the budget of Ukraine totaling UAH 2.394 billion.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) urges citizens who came through coronavirus (COVID-19) to become plasma donors to develop a medicine against this disease, which the company is launching. The company told Interfax-Ukraine that hyperimmune immunoglobulin may be effective for specific treatment of COVID-19.
The development of the medicine is carried out under Biopharma’s participation in the work of the International alliance of companies specializing in the production of blood plasma medicines, which also includes Takeda and CSL, Octapharma, Biotest, BPL, LFB, Sanquin, GreenCros, ADMA Biologics.
“Our plasma centers in Sumy, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Kharkiv began plasma blank. All the facilities of our plant in Bila Tserkva, all the forces of our team are directed to the development of medicines. I am sure that effective treatment of COVID-19 will appear,” co-owner of the company Kostiantyn Yefymenko wrote on Facebook.
In turn, businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky, a co-owner of Biopharma as well, said that the development of an effective medicine against COVID-19 requires the support of people around the world who are ready to donate their plasma after coming through the disease.
“We urge those who have recovered to contribute to the fight against the pandemic and, if their health allows, to become a donor,” he wrote on Facebook.
The company said that Biopharma urged all survivors who wish to become blood plasma donors to contact the company’s hotline. Donors will be transported to their plasma centers, where blood plasma can be donated, and back, and they will get compensation for donation.
The company said that it is ready to register and transfer donors from any settlements.
In addition, Biopharma said that one more direction of the fight against coronavirus infection is the clinical study that have begun to evaluate the effectiveness of Bioven medicine manufactured by Biopharma Plazma LLC in the complex treatment of patients with pneumonia caused by COVID-19 and SARS- CoV-2 coronavirus infection.
