Top managers of PJSC Kyivmetrobud, acting as a contractor general in the project to extend the Syretsko-Pecherska subway line in Kyiv’s subway, is ready to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in order to continue construction works, Director General of PJSC Kyivmetrobud Kostiantyn Saliy said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
“The owners of Kyivmetrobud unanimously appointed me as director general, so that the previous director, Mr. Metelytsia, could deal with what he is directly doing – the construction of the subway. Political, media and team reorganization issues will be led by the director general,” Saliy said.
According to him, the enterprise will conduct an inventory of material and technical assets, as well as turn to law enforcement authorities regarding the likely embezzlement of funds.
“At the moment, the Prosecutor General’s Office has decided to seize accounts. They are also developing a “recipe” on how to control the distribution of these funds transparently. We believe that it’s good that the Prosecutor General’s Office will be present and observe how the work is being done. The Prosecutor General’s Office will also have access to documents, [will see] where the funds went, what work was done, who signed papers with margins, and will identify the whole range of interested parties,” Saliy added, noting that resolving the situation around the enterprise depends on law enforcement authorities.
As reported with reference to the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the investigating judge of Kyiv’s Pechersky district court seized money in the bank accounts of PJSC Kyivmetrobud and its branches.
“In the future, the Prosecutor General’s Office will appeal to court with a motion to transfer these funds to the ARMA [Asset Recovery and Management Agency] with the possibility of making payments to build the subway under control of the state,” the press service said.
Oleh Tokarev, the head of the Kyivmetrobud’s supervisory board, said at the press conference at Interfax-Ukraine that the reason for the change in the company’s management is the unsatisfactory pace of subway construction towards the Vynohradar area, due to which the launch of the subway line is postponed for a year.
“The amount of the tender is UAH 6 billion. At the end of the year, an advance payment of UAH 2.6 billion was received. During the year that we lived with Director General Vasyl Kobil, UAH 1 billion was spent and work for UAH 150 million was completed but not signed by the customer. “This is only 2.5% of the contract amount. Therefore, on December 17, the supervisory board decided to dismiss Kobil and appoint Oleksandr Metelytsia to the post of director general,” he said.
In turn, Managing Partner of the Ilyashev & Partners law firm Mykhailo Ilyashev said that a “series of myths” about the seizure of the enterprise are being spread and suggested that “the problem was inspired by the former head.”
He also commented on the statement of the Justice Ministry on the reinstatement of the director of PJSC Kyivmetrobud and making appropriate changes to the public register.
“The minister did not annul anything. He did not cancel any decisions of the supervisory board and could not cancel, because this is outside the competence of the Justice Ministry. Most likely, this was about the conclusions made by the commission under the Justice Ministry that the notary who made changes to the register made a technical error. Today, these documents will be submitted to the notary so that the relevant changes are introduced again,” Ilyashev said, emphasizing that the statement of the ministry does not cast doubt on the lawfulness of the decisions of the supervisory board.
As reported, in 2018, Kyiv Metropoliten entered into an agreement on construction work to extend the Syretsko-Pecherska subway line with Kyivmetrobud, which won the tender held on the ProZorro platform.
As part of the first phase of work, it is planned to build two stations, Mostytska and Prospekt Pravdy, at a section of almost 4 km, and branches to the Vynohradar station to extend the line.
It was planned that the work will last until 2021, and its cost will be UAH 5.993 billion.
Ukraine has announced the issue of new 10 year eurobonds pegged to euros, the Finance Ministry has reported on its website.
“The new EUR-denominated Reg S/144A senior unsecured notes are offered with a bullet maturity of 10 years,” the ministry said on Wednesday.
FCA/ICMA stabilization applies, the ministry added.
In the middle of June 2019, Ukraine placed seven-year EUR 1 billion eurobonds at 6.75% per annum on the foreign loan market. This was the first sovereign issue of Ukrainian eurobonds in euros over the past 15 years. Demand for it exceeded supply six times.
The Finance Ministry previously announced plans to issue first 2020 eurobonds at the beginning of the year.
Ukrainian enterprises increased imports of copper and copper products in terms of money by 17.9% in 2019 compared with similar period of 2018, to $124.36 million.
Exports of copper and copper products decreased 42.9% over the year to $79.668 million, according to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
In December, copper and copper products were imported to the tune of $9.995 million, and copper exports were estimated at $6.831 million.
In addition, in 2019, Ukraine decreased imports of nickel and products made of it by 11.5%, to $83.27 million (imports in December were estimated at $5.429 million), while imports of aluminum and products made of it increased 9%, to $401.814 million ($32.729 million). Imports of lead and products made of it decreased by 4.6%, to $15.484 million ($1.07 million) and imports of tin and products made of it decreased 18%, to $3.928 million ($0.353 million). Imports of zinc and zinc goods decreased 8.5%, to $75.631 million ($6.805 million).
Exports of aluminum and products made of it decreased 23.8% in 2019, to $100.554 million ($7.422 million in December alone), while shipments of lead abroad decreased 20%, to $27.075 million ($1.98 million). Exports of nickel fell by 44.6%, to $4.505 million ($0.272 million in December).
Zinc exports in 2019 amounted to $0.467 million ($0.001 million in December) compared to $0.363 in 2018. Exports of tin and products made of it in 2019 were estimated at $0.045 million ($0.008 million in December) compared to $0.313 million in 2018.
Nova Poshta group of companies plans to invest $100 million in infrastructure development in 2020, co-owner of the company Volodymyr Popereshniuk wrote on his Facebook page. “We plan $100 million investment in the development of Nova Poshta for 2020. For us, this is an unprecedented amount, but we need to start sometime. I already said that Nova Poshta had not yet developed, but only trained. Now we are starting!” he declared.
This year, the company plans to launch the second phase of Kyiv Innovation Center, increasing the capacity to 50,000 parcels per hour (with a prospect of up to 60,000).
It is also planned to build four large innovation centers with an automated sorting system in Brovary, Dnipro, Odesa, and Kharkiv.
“The capacity of each will be up to 20,000 parcels per hour. We will also build, update and equip dozens of other terminals in Ukrainian cities with modern equipment,” he said.
In addition, Nova Poshta plans to build the first cargo terminal with a robotic system for sorting pallets and bulky goods, to modernize branches and introduce new equipment to increase the speed of customer service.
“We plan to purchase scooters, pickups, minibuses and intercity containers,” the co-owner of the company said.
According to him, most of the investment will be used for information technology and the development of mobile services.
Within the framework of a working visit to Switzerland, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.
According to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the head of state will also hold meetings with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva and President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti.
In addition, Zelensky will meet with Chairman of the Board and CEO of Cargill (U.S.) David MacLennan, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev, founder and head of the Indian Adani Group Gautam Adani.
The timely reaction to the avian influenza outbreak in Ukraine allowed the country not to halt imports of poultry from the European Union (EU) and Ukrainian counts on uninterrupted authorization to export Ukrainian poultry to the EU, Deputy Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Minister, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has said. “Over the past month, a number of EU Member States have recorded cases of avian influenza. But a timely decision on zoning and a well-functioning communication mechanism allowed Ukraine to not stop the import of poultry meat from the EU for this reason. Therefore, we immediately informed the competent authorities of the EU about the detected case of bird flu in Vinnytsia region,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
In addition, Ukraine has suspended certification of exporter capacity in a 30 km zone, while the EU sets requirements for the 10 km zone.
“All these measures are being taken to prove to the whole world that trust allows us to maintain trade in such sensitive situations,” Kachka said.
The deputy minister expects that in such conditions the EU will retain a permit for the import of poultry meat from Ukraine.
“If we were hostile to each other, the EU would have taken this opportunity and tried to close imports from Ukraine in general. This would trigger a chain mechanism of mutual restrictions. (Both sides want to avoid this scenario). In the meantime, we are actively cooperating with EU regulatory authorities so that the reaction is friendly and adequate,” Kachka said.
