Former head of United Mining and Chemical Company Oleksandr Hladushko has denied allegations of withdrawing funds from the company by its incumbent management.
In a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency he claims that there were no overdue receivables for products at the time of transfer of control to the new management in February 2020.
“For a year now, United Mining and Chemical Company has been managed by new managers. And suddenly we learn about a debt of $ 38 million for 2019, they have been modestly silent about all this time? This alogism can only be explained by the fact that on the eve of privatization, the team of Artur Somov [the incumbent head of the company] is trying to shift responsibility for their managerial mistakes onto their predecessors,” the report says.
According to Hladushko, at the time of his team’s departure from the company, it was profitable and financially secure: by the end of the first quarter of 2020, it received UAH 245 million in net profit, the balance of payments of the enterprise was positive.
“By January, the company’s accounts had over UAH 405.3 million. This was enough to keep production and supply running smoothly, pay salaries, and taxes for three to four months,” the ex-head says.
Commenting on the news about the shutdown of Vilnohirsk GOK in May 2020 and non-payment of wages to miners, and later – about production downtime due to an unstable financial support, Hladushko expressed opinion that the above funds were spent, and new ones were not earned, which led to cash breaks in the company.
The ex-head also named among the achievements of his team the growth of income of the company almost twofold – up to UAH 3.5 billion, payments to budgets almost fourfold – up to UAH 1.4 billion, investments in production by 8.3 times, up to UAH 749.6 million, as well as an increase in the value of assets by more than four times – up to UAH 3.4 billion.
Acting chairman of the board of United Mining and Chemical Company Artur Somov said earlier that the company intends to collect $ 38 million through the International Commercial Arbitration Court under contracts with the companies Bollwerk Finanzierungs- und Industriemanagement AG (Austria) and Defessa Trans F.Z.E (the UAE), through which the ex-management of United Mining and Chemical Company laundered funds from the enterprise.
Earlier, PrJSC United Mining and Chemical Company, which managed Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (Zhytomyr region), initiated the process of collecting a debt of $ 38 million, according to the company, withdrawn by the previous management.
The state enterprise United Mining and Chemical Company began its actual activity in August 2014, when the government of Ukraine decided to transfer the property complexes of Vilnohirsk and Irshansk GOKs to it. On December 8, 2016, the state enterprise was transformed into PJSC United Mining and Chemical Company, on December 26, 2018 – into PrJSC.
United Mining and Chemical Company sells its products to more than 30 countries of the world. The main sales markets are the EU, China, Turkey, as well as the United States and African countries.
In August 2016, the government included United Mining and Chemical Company in the list of companies that are subject to privatization in 2017. Its terms were postponed several times, most recently due to the coronavirus crisis and quarantine. BDO Corporate Finance as part of the consortium Baker McKenzie, Baker Tilly Ukraine and Asset Expertise, prepares the company for privatization.
The management of the SPF proposes to put United Mining and Chemical Company up for sale in the first half of this year, declares about 15 applicants for the enterprise and predicts the starting price of the object from UAH 3 billion to UAH 5 billion.
The incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ukraine continues to decline, and the number of hospitalizations is also decreasing, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Last week, some 25,500 cases of COVID-19 incidence were detected, which is less than in the previous week (27,157 cases). If you look at the statistics, we see the situation is stabilized. For example, in the first week of December, some 89,000 cases were recorded. The number of hospitalized patients is also changing – in the first week of December there were about 28,000 people, and as of Monday 17,911 people in medical facilities,” he said.
According to the minister, the number of antigen tests is increasing. “During the week, some 144,248 PCR tests were done. The number of tests with rapid antigen tests is also growing, some 52,222 studies were conducted, which is 20,000 more than the previous week. Ukraine is provided with test systems,” he said.
New head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Armin Laschet, supports the idea of expanding the EU and giving Ukraine a “European perspective”, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said on Twitter.
“We must support Ukraine in its difficult path and at the same time also open up a European perspective,” Melnyk quoted Laschet.
According to Melnyk in an interview with Hromadske Radio on Monday, this is the first promising prospect.
“The announcement of the a leader of the CDU is extremely important. This is a real breakthrough […] It is too early to rejoice, this is just a good start. Now we are starting to work even more actively so that new important steps emerge from this announcement,” Melnyk said.
According to him, Ukraine has good chances of EU membership.
“If we succeed in the near future […] to do more, to enlist the support of the entire CDU-CSU faction in the Bundestag, as well as other influential members of this party, then we, generally, have good chances that the topic of Ukraine’s membership will sound more weighty in context of the elections to the Bundestag, which will be held in September this year,” the ambassador said.
At the same time, Melnyk said that the military conflict in Donbas influences European integration very strongly, and while it continues, there is no talk of membership [of Ukraine in the EU]
“Of course it does. And it affects very negatively. And this is precisely where, among other things, all the cynicism of this war unleashed by Russia lies. Since all the resources of Germany, more precisely, almost all the resources of Germany, which, as you know, acts as a mediator in ending the war, cessation of Russian aggression. They have so far focused primarily on a peaceful settlement in Donbas and on the reintegration of these territories. Therefore, as long as the conflict continues, as long as this war continues, it was impossible to talk about membership, because the main issue for the political establishment of Germany was the war,” the ambassador said.
He also said that, first, the issue of ending the war has to be resolved, and only then other possible projects will be discussed, including issues of European integration in the sense that it is enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution.
DTEK Energy has agreed on the terms of restructuring eurobonds and the major bank debt with the committees of creditors-holders of eurobonds and banks, the group’s press service has said.
The company notes that the completion of restructuring will ensure the stable operation of the company in the long term, flexible debt service mechanics, taking into account financial forecasts and an unstable external conjuncture.
DTEK’s Strategy and Finance Director Oleh Tymkiv, whose comment is given in the report, indicated that DTEK was building the negotiation process “as a reliable partner fulfilling its obligations.”
“This allowed to maintain constructive relations and balance the company’s loan servicing capabilities and continue its development,” he stressed.
According to him, during the negotiation process, DTEK was able to make sure that the creditors fully understand the consequences of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, both on the country’s economy and on the energy industry.
“This was reflected in their balanced constructive position, aimed primarily at finding a compromise solution. As a result, we managed to reach the best conditions for both sides of the new agreement,” Tymkiv summed up.
The State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) has signed an agreement for the construction of a new bridge in Kremenchuk (Poltava region) for UAH 11.249 billion with the Turkish company Dogus Insaat Ve Ticaret.
On the part of Ukravtodor, the contract was signed by the head of the road service in Poltava region, Ivan Krapovnytsky, from Dogus Insaat Ve Ticaret – executive director Tolga Akkas.
Ukravtodor noted that the new bridge will improve the optimization of logistics routes in the center of Ukraine by reducing travel times for road transport. This will be achieved by increasing the speed limit for trucks from 36.8-53.3 km/h to 72.9 km/h, buses from 35.7-53.4 km/h to 71.1 km/h, passenger cars from 39.6-55.3 km/h to 81.5 km/h.
“All plots that fall under the construction zone will be bought for state funds. If these are private plots where people live, or some other private plots, they will be bought out, transferred to the state ownership, and people will receive monetary compensation for this,” Krapovnytsky said.
Vaccines against COVID-19 from four companies will arrive in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“We have agreed to supply vaccines to Ukraine from Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Novavax companies. The first stage of vaccination will begin this month. Our doctors, the military and the National Guard will be the first to receive the vaccine,” Zelensky said at the opening of the “Ukraine 30. Coronavirus: Challenges and Responses” Forum on Monday.
At the same time, the president said that having already resolved the issue of vaccine supplies to the country, Ukraine faced a new problem, namely “lack of faith in vaccination, refusal to vaccinate by a significant part of the population.”
“This is a new but very serious issue that we all need to address. Personally I am ready, like most world leaders, to show that vaccination is important, safe and necessary,” the president said.
The president said that Ukraine will buy only safe vaccines from world manufacturers.
“There is no official information that the Russian vaccine has a 91% effect, neither from WHO nor from world experts. The head of WHO said today that there are several key points to pay attention to, one of them – fakes. Citizens of Ukraine are people and definitely not rabbits. We have no right to experiment on them,” Zelensky said.
“Today I will talk to Pfizer. We should get one million vaccines in February. In addition, there are agreements with the Chinese manufacturer. There are agreements with the U.K. and the United States,” he added.
The president said that Ukraine must purchase vaccines and provide an opportunity for all Ukrainians to be vaccinated. “As a state, we will lift the bans on people who are vaccinated or have contracted COVID-19,” Zelensky said.
The head of state also said that Ukraine has developed a vaccination roadmap, which provides for proper and equal access for all citizens of Ukraine.
“Its main task is to cover at least half of the population of Ukraine during 2021 and early 2022,” the president said.
