EssilorLuxottica French-Italian holding, a large player on the global eye-glass, optic equipment market, could acquire Luxoptica, the largest Ukrainian eye-glass network with 176 shops, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has reported. The committee said that the committee on Thursday will discuss the provision of a permit to Essilor Nederland Holding B.V. (the Netherlands), fully owned by EssilorLuxottica, to acquire over 50% in International Optical House Holding B.V. (the Netherlands), which holds 100% of Luxoptica Holding LLC (Kyiv).
According to the unified public register of legal entities and private entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiaries of Luxoptica Holding are Nadia Shalomova, wife of businessman and former head of the presidential administration of Ukraine Borys Lozhkin, and co-owner of the Dobrobut medical network Oleh Kalashnikov.
Luxoptica was not immediately available for comment.
EssilorLuxottica is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of ophthalmic lenses, frames and sunglasses.
EssilorLuxottica supplies its products to a wide network with more than 10,000 stores, and also sells its products in line with the omnichannel sales model.
In particular, the company is known for such brands of glasses as Ray-Ban and Oakley, optical technologies Varilux and Transitions and ophthalmic retail chains Sunglass Hut and Lenscrafters.
The French Essilor acquired the Italian company Luxottica Group in 2017 for EUR 22.8 billion, creating the largest European lenses manufacturer as a result of the transaction.
The shareholders of Ukrainian Insurance Group on December 19 approved an agreement to merge Globus Insurance Company with Ukrainian Insurance Group (both based in Kyiv), the insurer has reported in the public information base of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market. It was also decided to issue shares to convert the shares of Globus: 694,001 common registered shares with a nominal value of UAH 100 per share in the amount totaling UAH 69.400 million.
As reported, Ukrainian Insurance Group and Globus are part of Vienna Insurance Group, one of the largest insurance groups in Central and Eastern Europe.
Ukrainian Insurance Group has been operating in the Ukrainian market of conventional insurance since 2000. Globus insurance company with additional liability was founded in 1994. Both companies specialize in risk insurance.
In addition to these two companies, the Vienna Insurance Group in Ukraine also includes Kniazha Vienna Insurance Group and Kniazha Life Vienna Insurance Group.
Some 2.5 million tourists visited Lviv in 2019, which is 10% less than last year, the Tourism Department of Lviv City Council has reported. “Some 2.5 million tourists visited Lviv in 2019 and 37% of them were Ukrainian citizens,” reads the statement.
According to the Tourism Department, this figure is 10% lower than in 2018. However, the number of tourists from Poland who visited Lviv in 2019 increased by 2%, to 18.3%. Some 6.6% were tourists from Belarus, 6.2% – from Turkey, 5.4% – from Germany and 3% – from the UK.
Around 46% tourists traveled to Lviv by train, 30.8% – by airplane, 11.8% – by car and 11.6% – by bus.
“A tourist stayed in Lviv on the average for 3.8 days and spent around EUR 94 per day,” reads the statement.
Ukraine would receive income of $15 billion in five years of transit of Russian natural gas, according to Minister of Energy and Environment Protection of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel. “The approximate income with which Ukraine left this meeting [the meeting in Minsk on December 20, following which Ukraine-Russia-EC signed an intergovernmental protocol], is more than $3 billion for arbitration and approximately $3 billion for transit each year during five years,” the minister wrote in his column for the Ekonomichna Pravda (Economic Truth) publication on Tuesday.
“Thus, in five-year outlook, we will receive about $18 billion, of which $3 billion is ‘natural’ money – before the New Year. And this is without any enslaving conditions regarding the purchase of Russian gas,” Orzhel said.
At the same time, he said that at the meeting in Minsk the parties made significant progress, however, at present, the risk of not signing the new contract still exists.
“The protocol is not an agreement yet. In the last week of December, our companies will draft the text. But until the agreement itself has been signed, there is no transit. Can the other side change its mind at the last moment? Yes. Are we ready for this? Yes. But if this happens, Gazprom will suffer all image losses,” the minister added.
Only one in four (25%) Ukrainians supports the idea of shifting the celebration of Christmas from January 7 to December 25, while 64% of the citizens are against, according to a survey conducted by the Sociological Group Rating on December 5-8.
According to the survey, 25% of Ukrainians surveyed support the idea of postponing Christmas celebrations from January 7 to December 25, 64% of respondents are against such an idea, another 7% said that they were indifferent to this issue and 4% found it difficult to answer.
It is noted that the number of those who support the shifting of the date of the celebration of Christmas has increased in dynamics (in 2016 only 15% supported this idea, 69% were against it).
Thus, the majority of supporters of the idea of transferring Christmas are in the west: 43% support and almost the same number of respondents do not support. In other macro-regions, the respondents were more likely to oppose the shifting: 23% in the centre supported the idea and 66% were against, in the south – 15% and 74% respectively, and in the east – 14% and 74%. In addition, wealthier people, and middle-aged and older respondents support this initiative a little more.
The Sociological Group Rating polled the population of Ukraine of 18 years and older. The sample is representative by region, type of settlement, region, age, and gender. Some 2,000 respondents were polled through personal formalized interview (face-to-face). The study representativeness error is not more than 2.2%.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine stops issuing certificates for beverages named Cognac, Armagnac, Grappa, Brandy and Sherry as the transition period after the signing of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) Agreement expired. According to Annex III of the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, the countries of origin that can use names Cognac, Armagnac, Grappa, Brandy and Sherry are only France, Italy and Spain.
“Given that Ukraine has passed the transition period after signing the DCFTA, the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry stops issuing certificates for drinks called Cognac, Armagnac, Grappa, Brandy and Sherry,” First Vice President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mykhailo Nepran said.
He said that from now on Ukraine will export sparkling wine and brandy, in accordance with the foreign activity codes.
As reported, the DCFTA trade area between Ukraine and the European Union began to operate on January 1, 2016.
