Ukraine has signed a contract with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer to supply an additional 10 million doses against coronavirus disease, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has told President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“After lengthy and difficult negotiations with Pfizer, we have reached an agreement on the supply of an additional 10 million doses. We signed the contract this night. That is, in total, we will receive 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine during this calendar year,” Stepanov said.
The press service of the head of state said that according to the agreements, Ukraine will receive the first 500,000 doses under this contract in May-June 2021, 4.5 million doses in the third quarter (July-September), and the remaining 15 million doses in the fourth quarter of this year.
The conclusion of the agreement was made possible thanks to Zelensky’s direct communication with Pfizer CEO Albert Burla. The president personally coordinated the process of negotiations on the supply of the drug to Ukraine, because today the demand for vaccines in the world significantly exceeds production. Therefore, the Ukrainian government used various tools to provide the country with a high-quality vaccine. In particular, the strategic communications of the President and the constant operational communications of the Ministry of Health made it possible to sign a contract and receive a high-quality vaccine in Ukraine in significant volumes.
Zelensky thanked the CEO of Pfizer for helping Ukraine during the difficult times of the pandemic and noted the efforts of the representatives of Ukraine who accompanied the signing of the contract.
“This is a truly remarkable result. Now the task of the state is to ensure vaccination of the maximum number of citizens. It is also necessary to more actively explain to people the importance of vaccination against COVID-19, because this is the only way to overcome the pandemic, return to normal life and forget about quarantines forever,” the president said.
The pharmaceutical company Farmak increased capital investments by 78% in 2020 compared to 2019, to UAH 1.3 billion.
According to the company’s press release, the main investment projects last year are the launch of a new workshop for the production of sterile drugs and the start of construction of an R&D center, which will develop modern complex component drugs.
Farmak’s research and development expenditures in 2020 amounted to UAH 448 million.
In addition, the company’s funds were used to modernize and equip existing sites, bring production facilities in line with FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) requirements, energy saving projects, develop a laboratory complex, and implement IT projects to automate business processes.
The company also said that in 2020 Farmak paid UAH 712.1 million in taxes, and the number of employees for the specified reporting period increased to 2,761 people.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups. Annually, the company introduces to the market about 20 new complex component modern drugs. Currently, there are about 100 drugs in development. The company exports products to more than 25 countries around the world.
Over the past five years, Farmak’s investments in the scientific and technical complex, production equipment, and research activities amounted to UAH 3.4 billion.
JSC Farmak is a member of the Association of Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).
The State Customs Service on Friday launched HelpDesk business support service, the authority reported in its Telegram channel.
“The beta version is already available at the link help.customs.gov.ua. The first direction, which will start supporting the new HelpDesk, will be NCTS,” the authority said.
As the authority explained, this IT solution will allow the business to communicate with the support service representatives from the customs side “directly in the application itself.” In the coming years, it is planned to create a HelpDesk for customs inspectors, the authority added.
The net profit of Raiffeisen Bank Aval JSC (Kyiv) in January-March 2021 amounted to UAH 1.087 billion, which is 4.9% more than in the same period of 2020 (UAH 1.037 billion).
According to a report on the website of the financial institution, in the first quarter of 2021, the bank’s net interest income amounted to UAH 1.81 billion, net commissions reached UAH 561.39 million, which is 2.7% and 10.3% less than in January-March 2020, respectively.
The bank’s assets in the first three months grew by 1.5%, to UAH 108.86 billion, including a 1.4-fold rise in cash and cash equivalents, to UAH 22.38 billion, and a 3.7% increase in loans to customers, to UAH 47.41 billion.
The bank’s liabilities grew by 0.5%, to UAH 94.9 billion, including a rise of 3.5% in liabilities to customers, to UAH 91.3 billion.
The bank’s equity capital grew by 8.2%, to UAH 13.95 billion, while the charter capital remained unchanged (UAH 6.16 billion).
Raiffeisen Bank Aval was founded in 1992. As of January 1, 2021, its largest shareholders were Raiffeisen Bank International with 68.27% of shares and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) with 30%.
According to the NBU, as of March 1, 2021, Raiffeisen Bank Aval ranked fifth in terms of total assets (UAH 118.336 billion) among 73 operating banks
The loan portfolio of Ukrainian banks in January-March 2021 expanded by 0.8%, to UAH 1.06 trillion, while the volume of non-performing loans (NPL) fell by 1.8%, to UAH 422.6 billion, according to a report posted on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to it, the share of NPL in the banking system in the first quarter of 2021 decreased from 41% to 39.9%.
The National Bank said that in the first three months of 2021 the portfolio of loans to the corporate sector decreased 0.4%, to UAH 792.540 billion (including the share of NPL in it – by 1.2%, to UAH 366.7 billion), in turn, the portfolio loans to individuals grew by 3.3%, to UAH 215.29 billion (NPL decreased 5.6%, to UAH 54.92 billion).
At the same time, the volume of interbank loans increased by 15%, to UAH 39.15 billion (including NPL decreased 0.3%, to UAH 981 million), while the volume of loans issued to public and local authorities decreased 4.2%, to UAH 11.24 billion (NPL remained at zero).
According to the National Bank, at the end of the quarter, the share of NPL in the portfolio of loans issued to the corporate sector fell by 0.4 percentage points (to 46.3%), loans to the population – by 2.4 percentage points (to 25.5%), interbank loans – by 0.4 percentage points (to 2.5%), and loans to public authorities remained at the level of 0%.
According to the central bank report, the loan portfolio of state-owned banks without PrivatBank in January-March 2021 increased 1.3%, to UAH 299.07 billion (the NPL volume in it decreased 0.1%, to UAH 128.9 billion) , while the loan portfolio of PrivatBank increased 0.2%, to UAH 245.376 million (NPL decreased 1.8%, to UAH 177.99 billion).
In addition, in January-March 2021, the loan portfolio of banks with foreign capital decreased 1% (to UAH 340.7 billion), and with private ones increased 5% (to UAH 173.1 billion), while the volume of NPL in them decreased accordingly 3.1% (to UAH 92.9 billion) and 4.9% (to UAH 22.8 billion).
Thus, at the end of the first quarter of 2021, the share of NPL in the loan portfolios of state-owned banks (excluding PrivatBank) decreased 0.6 percentage points (to 43.1%), in PrivatBank – by 1.4 p.p. (to 72.54%), in banks with foreign capital – by 0.6 percentage points (to 27.28%) and in banks with private capital – by 1.4 percentage points (to 13.2%).
As reported, at the end of 2020, the loan portfolio of Ukrainian banks narrowed by 4.4%, to UAH 1.05 trillion, including the volume of NPL falling by 18.9%, to UAH 430.371 billion.
On 30 April 2021, Ukraine announced the successful settlement of its new $$1.25 billion eurobonds due 2029 placed with a yield of 6.875%. “The proceeds were transferred to the account of the State Treasury of Ukraine and will be used for general budgetary purposes,” the ministry said.
According to the report, the notes will be admitted to trading on London Stock Exchange’s main market on 4 May 2021. This is an inaugural listing of Ukraine’s sovereign bonds on London Stock Exchange. Earlier Ukraine’s notes were listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.
The ministry said that the notes were issued with a yield of 6.875%, receiving bids in excess of $3.3 billion from 223 investors. The investor base of the new issuance was dominated by asset managers, which accounted for 84% of the notes issued and followed by hedge funds (9%), insurance and pension funds (5%) and banks (2%).
Investors from the United Kingdom, the United States and continental Europe generated the majority of demand in the new eurobond’s primary offering with 42%, 34% and 21% of allocations, respectively. Investors from Asia and MENA amounted to 3% of the allocations.
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs International and J.P. Morgan acted as joint bookrunners.
Government Commissioner for Public Debt Management Yuriy Butsa said that despite returning to the fiscal consolidation path, Ukraine’s financing needs are still high compared with the previous years. As a part of our debt management strategy, the decision was made to cover most of those needs from the local market and in national currency.
“Having successfully implemented this strategy in Q1, we returned to the international capital markets after their stabilization in order to cover part of our FX needs for this year. We are glad that in the less favorable market environment for the emerging economies, markets still remain accommodating for issuers with a track record of prudent fiscal and monetary policies and proactive engagement with the investor community,” he said.
