The British fund Duet Private Equity Ltd, part of Duet Group, claims to buy the Ocean Plaza trade and entertainment center in Kyiv.
“A new bidder, the British fund Duet Private Equity Ltd [part of Duet Group], appeared for the purchase of the Ocean Plaza mall controlled by TPS Real Estate,” the Kommersant edition said.
At the same time, Duet Private Equity and TPS Real Estate did not respond to requests from the publication. According to the edition, “the final clarity regarding the transaction will appear in three to four months.”
Duet Group was founded in 2002. Its portfolio includes projects worth more than $5.5 billion. In April 2019, Duet Private Equity acquired Gas Natural Fenosa, which manages most of Moldova’s energy networks, from the Spanish company Naturgy.
As reported, Lybid Investment Union LLC (Kyiv), which is the formal owner of the Ocean Plaza shopping center, in September 2019 amended the list of beneficial owners in the unified state register of legal entities and individuals.
According to the register, as of October 16, 2019, instead of the daughter of Russian businessman Arkady Rotenberg, Liliya, as well as Swiss citizens Andrea and Suzanne Vallabh, the ultimate beneficiary of Lybid became Ocean Plaza Project.
According to the register, Liliya Rotenberg also ceased to be listed as the founder of Avangard-Vilarti LLC (the owner of 100% of the charter capital of Lybid) in September.
The harvest of grain and leguminous crops in Ukraine in 2019, according to preliminary data from the regions, could reach 71.8 million tonnes, which is 1.7 million tonnes more than in 2018, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has reported. According to the agency, wheat production may increase by 3.5 million tonnes, to 28.1 million tonnes, the yield of barley by 1.6 million tonnes, to 8.9 million tonnes, oats by 26,000 tonnes, to 444,000 tonnes, millet by 84,000 tonnes, to 165,000 tonnes.
At the same time, the ministry expects the reduction in the harvest of corn by 3 million tonnes, to 32.8 million tonnes, peas by 203,000 tonnes, to 572,000 tonnes, rye by 60,000 tonnes, to 333,000 tonnes, buckwheat by 52,000 tonnes, to 85,000 tonnes, rice by 6,000 tonnes, to 63,000 tonnes.
In addition, the forecast for rapeseeds in 2019 was raised by 472,000 tonnes, to 3.2 million tonnes, for sunflower seeds decreased by 589,000 tonnes, to 13.6 million tonnes, soybeans by 827,000 tonnes, to 3.6 million tonnes.
The Ministry of Agriculture expects that 9.8 million tonnes of sugar beets will be harvested, which is 4.2 million tonnes less than in 2018.
The forecast for potato was reduced by 2.2 million tonnes, to 20.3 million tonnes, vegetables by 575,000 tonnes, to 8.9 million tonnes.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has registered in the parliament bill No.2285 on the regulation of organization of gambling games in the country. Though, there has been no text of the bill on the parliament’s website so far.
According to the government’s report on its website, the bill suggests restriction of a number of the licenses for the game establishments, sets a demand to place the halls with slot machines exclusively in the territory of 3-5-star hotels, casinos in the territory of five-star hotels.
In addition, the bill proposes to establish mandatory verification of players when accepting bets and registration of winnings in the online monitoring system, which should be administered by the tax service.
At the same time, the government proposes to strengthen financial and criminal liability for the gambling activities without licenses, as well as to establish the target direction of payments for the licenses in this area for the development of sports, medicine and culture.
“Legalization of the gambling business will also allow the budget to receive up to UAH 5 billion, however, the final figures for the budget revenues will depend on in which edition the deputies will adopt the law,” reads the report posted on the website.
Chief of the National Police of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko has appointed Oleksandr Hrynchak as chief of the Cyber Police Department and Serhiy Kropyva as his deputy.
The respective decree was signed on October 19, a website of the National Police reported.
Prior police Colonel Hrynchak headed the section on combating crimes in information systems of the Economic Defense Department and worked as first deputy head of the Cyber Police Department.
Italy’s Ernest Airlines has opened an office in Kyiv in Podilsky district, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported on Friday.
The company’s new office will also host a call center.
Along with this, the airline announced the opening of a new Ernest Airlines base at Sikorsky Kyiv airport (Zhuliany) in April 2020, the launch of five new routes between Ukraine and Italy: Kyiv-Venice, Kyiv-Bari, Kyiv-Trieste, Lviv-Bologna and Milan-Odesa.
Thanks to the new office in Ukraine, Ernest Airlines plans to strengthen and expand cooperation with Ukrainian travel agencies and tour operators.
As reported, Ernest Airlines plans to invest EUR 100 million in Ukraine in two years and to deploy two aircraft in Kyiv in 2020.
The group of companies Ristone Holdings has invested EUR 2 million in construction of a second phase of the oilseed crushing complex of Ristone Oil LLC (Dnipropetrovsk region), the group has reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, the company concluded a contract with Germany’s Convex International GmbH for the supply of drying and cleaning equipment from Petkus (Germany), transport equipment from Riela (Germany), four main and two auxiliary grain silos with a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters from Symaga firm (Spain).
“This will allow us to keep the quality at the highest level and increase the volume of the daily processing rate by more than two times, while minimizing emissions of pollutants,” the group said.
The main activity of the complex is the deep processing of oilseeds. Currently, Ristone Oil produces sunflower oil, granulated meal, expanded cake, and fuel pellets from production waste.
In the future, it is envisaged the possibility of placing a line of hydration and drying of phosphatides in the oil press workshop with a warehouse for their storage and subsequent loading to vehicles.
