In Ukraine during last two weeks, 19-31 December, 5.39 thousand deals with agricultural land lots have been concluded, which is 1.9 times more than during the previous period of 5-19 December, while the area of sold land lots has doubled – up to 11.04 thousand hectares.
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Tuesday, during the period from July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, in which the land market operates in the country, a total of 142.94 thousand transactions for land lots with a total area of 322.19 thousand hectares were conducted.
According to the Ministry, in the period from 19-31 December daily on average there were 385 transactions with agricultural land with a total area of 0,79 thousand hectares / day, while on 5-19 December these figures were 203 transactions on 0,39 thousand hectares / day, and for November 21 – 5 December – 214 transactions on 0,42 thousand hectares / day respectively.
The specified figure is still significantly lower than before the Russian invasion: according to the latest pre-war data of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, during the period from 11 to 18 February in Ukraine daily on average there were 621 land deals with a total area of 1.65 thousand ha.
Kharkiv region is in the lead by the total area of agricultural land sold with an indicator of 39.47 thousand hectares. Dnipropetrovsk region is followed by 28.95 thousand hectares, Poltava region – 26.34 thousand hectares, Kirovograd region – 26.12 thousand hectares and Kherson region – 21.03 thousand hectares.
It is specified that during these two weeks most of all agricultural land was sold in Dnipropetrovsk region (1.25 thousand ha), as well as in Khmelnytskyi (1.19 thousand ha), Vinnitsa (1.07 thousand ha), Poltava (1.05 thousand ha) and Kirovograd regions (805 ha).
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, since the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine, 41.98 thousand hectares of agricultural land transactions with a total area of 77.69 thousand hectares have been concluded. Most of the land was sold in Khmelnytsky, Vinnitsky, Poltava, Kirovograd and Dnipropetrovsk regions during the war.
At that by December 31, 2022, the average price per hectare of agricultural land has increased by 11% compared to December 15 – up to 52.46 thousand UAH/ha from 47.28 thousand UAH/ha.
As it was reported, the market of agricultural land in Ukraine began to work on July 1, 2021. At the first stage of the reform only citizens of the country got the right to buy and sell agricultural land, one individual will be able to hold no more than 100 hectares.
The right to purchase agricultural land from January 1, 2024 will be granted to legal entities created in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, and the ultimate beneficiary of one or more legal entities will be able to consolidate through them a total of not more than 10 thousand hectares.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) allowed Timekol LLC (Kyiv) to privatize Borschevsk distillery (Ternopil region), which is a part of state enterprise Ukrspirt, the right to buy for UAH 17.7 million the company won at an online auction in October 2022.
The text of the respective permit No.306-r, dated December 22, 2022, was published on the Committee’s website on Tuesday.
According to the Uniform State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of Timecool (till November 2020 – Business Star Group LLC) with the registered capital of 25 thousand UAH is Oksana Zakharova (earlier the company was owned by Sergey Afanasiev). This legal entity is engaged in the purchase, sale and lease of real estate, organization of building construction and non-specialized wholesale trade.
This company already has experience in privatization of assets of state enterprise “Ukrspirt” – in November 2021 it won the right to privatize Uladivskyi distillery (Vinnitsa region) for UAH 50,1 mln in an online auction “Prozorro.Selling”.
According to the State Property Fund (SPF), the only property complex Borschevsk distillery consists of 812 buildings, structures, movable and other property, including industrial buildings, bard storage facility, boiler room, distillery, fermentation and carbonic acid plants, pigsty, greenhouses, hangars, warehouses, garages, etc. The facility is equipped with basic technological equipment and the necessary utilities.
The enterprise is located on two plots of land in Borschev with a total area of 7.4 hectares.
Ports of “Big Odessa” on Saturday and Sunday in the framework of the “Grain Initiative” sent 432 thousand tons of agricultural products in a caravan of nine ships to Africa, Asia and Europe, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine said.
“In particular, bulk carrier Honorine with 27.5 thousand tons of Ukrainian grain for Tunisia and bulk carrier Velvet with 57 thousand tons of wheat for Bangladesh,” the ministry noted.
The Ministry pointed out that 19 ships are being processed in the ports involved in the “grain initiative”, 630 thousand tons of Ukrainian agricultural products are being loaded on them.
At the same time, 94 ships are waiting for their turn to be inspected by the SKZ in the Bosporus (69 ships are empty for loading, and 25 are already loaded with agricultural products).
“The Russian side in the JCC is systematically slowing down inspections. Vessels wait more than a month on average. At the same time, the bulk carrier T-Med with wheat on board has been waiting for inspection since the beginning of November last year,” the Ministry of Infrastructure noted.
According to its information, at least 12 inspections per day are required for uninterrupted movement in the grain corridor.
A total of 620 vessels have left the ports of Greater Odessa since August 1, exporting 16.5 million tons of Ukrainian foodstuffs to Asia, Europe and Africa.
Changes in consolidated budget expenditures in 2014-2022 (%)
NBU
International hotel operator Accor Live Limitless (France) opened apartment hotel Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska, general director of Accor Northern Europe – Ukraine, Georgia and CIS region Andrey Davidenko told Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“At Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska, sales are open from December 29, 2022. Now is the soft opening period, not all works are 100% finished, by January 9 we plan to open the restaurant. ibis Kyiv Beresteiska will not open until the war is over,” he said.
Both hotels are located in one building on the Victory Avenue, 55, in Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska 105 rooms, in Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska – 156.
Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska is an apartment hotel, and the rooms are adapted for longer stays: they have fully equipped kitchens, special work spaces, WIFI and other amenities for work and rest. According to Davidenko, there are already clients, who have chosen the hotel for a long stay; there is also a possibility to rent a room for a short term.
As it was reported, the international hotel operator Accor Live Limitless was planning to launch three new hotels in Ukraine in 2022-2023, ibis & Adagio Kyiv, ibis Lviv and Novotel Lviv. A 77-room ibis Styles Lviv Center hotel, located in the business center of Lviv on Shukhevicha Street, 3, began operations in December 2022.
In addition, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank intends to provide a EUR 8 million loan for the construction of a 4-star hotel Novotel with a room capacity of 128 rooms in Lviv to Real Estate Development Center LLC.
“Now it is very difficult to talk about any timeline for Novotel Lviv, perhaps at the end of 2024 we will open. Everything depends on the end of the war,” Davidenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
Accor Group – one of the leading hotel operators in the world – opened the first hotel under the brand Novotel in Lille (France) in 1967.
Accor, as of December 2022, had more than 5.3 thousand hotels, resorts and residences in 110 countries under more than 40 brands (Raffles, Sofitel, Fairmont, OneFineStay, MGallery, Pullman, Swissotel, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, 25 hours hotel, Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, Mama Shelter, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Adagio success, Ibis Budget, Jo & Joe, hotelFormule1, hotel F1, Thalassa sea & spa, greet and others).
Accor SA shares are listed on Euronext in Paris and traded over-the-counter in the U.S. market.
In Ukraine AccorHotels manages 3-star Ibis hotels in Kyiv, Ibis Styles and Gruner in Lviv, 5-star Fairmont Grand Hotel in Kyiv, as well as Mercure Kyiv Congress Hotel. In addition, one hotel managed by Accor is located in Odessa – MGallery Hôtel de Paris.
Banks issued 4.42 thousand concessional loans under the state program “Affordable loans 5-7-9%” for UAH 10.27 billion in the last month of 2022, which is 21% or UAH 2.2 billion more than in November 2022, the Ministry of Finance said on its website on Monday.
According to its data, 1.66 thousand such loans worth 8.1 billion UAH were issued in November.
The Ministry of Finance specified that since the start of the program “5-7-9” business entities have received 52.85 thousand loans totaling 165.77 billion UAH from authorized banks, of which almost 34 thousand – from banks in the public sector for a total of 66.26 billion UAH.
It is noted that during the martial law in Ukraine as part of the state program 18.03 thousand loan agreements totaling 76.15 billion UAH (including 13.52 thousand by public sector banks for 39.62 billion UAH) were concluded.
According to the published data, the most credits were granted for war purposes – 38.35 billion UAH, 0.82 billion UAH of credit means were given to entrepreneurs for investment purposes, 6.34 billion UAH were allocated as anti-crisis credits, 4.38 billion UAH were given as refinancing of already received loans and 25.74 billion UAH were loans for agricultural producers.
As reported, the state program “Affordable credits 5-7-9%” with compensation of interest rates by the state was initiated in February 2020 to support projects of Ukrainian micro and small enterprises. Provision of three possible rates – 5%, 7% or 9% – on loans depends on the size of the business and the period of its operation. At the end of October last year the Cabinet of Ministers made changes to the conditions for granting loans under the program “Affordable credits 5-7-9%” and allowed to involve private entrepreneurs with annual income up to UAH 50 mln), also it became possible to fully compensate the rate.
Now 45 banks work with the program “Affordable credits 5-7-9%”.
As the National Bank reported in its Financial Stability Report in late 2022, the prevalence of programs with up to zero rate compensation, rising market interest rates and rapid portfolio growth have significantly increased the government’s financing costs for the program: more than 9 billion UAH must be paid this year instead of the planned 3 billion UAH, resulting in a government debt of 2.6 billion UAH as of early November, which is equivalent to two months of interest compensation and has kept banks from further using the program.
“In conditions of war, government support is a guarantee of business access to credit. So the weighty role of the program will remain in 2023. Since expanding the program will require additional resources, its design should be optimized. Most businesses have already adapted to the war and have resumed production, so an increase in rates should be considered. A separate design is needed for the program for agricultural producers, given the difficulties with the sale of crops due to the destruction of logistics,” pointed out the National Bank.
According to statistics from the NBU, if at the end of 2020, loans provided by the program “5-7-9”, took 5% of the net corporate portfolio of hryvnia, then at the end of 2021 – 18%, and as of December 2022 – 26%.
In turn, head of the Ministry of Finance Serhiy Marchenko reported that the state budget-2023 provides for 14 billion UAH for the program.
