Retail turnover in ukraine by regions in Jan-Aug 2020 (UAH mln).
JSC “Khmelnytskoblenergo” made a clean sweep of the “Activity” ratio in the rating “Transparency and financial sustainability of state-owned enterprises in Ukraine”, created by Institute of Economic and Social Reforms (INEKO), based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Khmelnytskoblenergo beat the competition of 50 SOEs badly, securing the 1st place with the 9.2 pts. (out of 10), while the 2nd place got only 7.0 pts.
The rating was created by two think tanks, Institute for Economic and Social Reforms in Slovakia (INEKO) and the International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS), Ukraine. US Embassy in Ukraine and SlovakAid provided support for the project.
According to the methodology of the rating, the “Activity” ratio demonstrates “the efficiency of a company in its everyday business operations” and consists of Working Capital Turnover Ratio and Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio.
Khmelnytskoblenergo also finished 8th on the “financial sustainability” and 6th on the “transparency” scale among the 50 companies analyzed.
The evaluation criteria for the Transparency scale were, according to the rating methodology, transparency and access to information, economic indicators, public procurement and property, human resources policy, ethics and conflict of interests, grants and charity policy.
According to Oleg Kozachuk, Acting CEO of Khmelnytskoblenergo, this is the recognition of the Khmelnytskoblenergo efficiency: “That’s the result of 4 years of hard work of the whole team – company’s management and almost 3,000 employees”.
Rating “Transparency and financial sustainability of state-owned enterprises in Ukraine” has been created as a part of the “Strengthening democratic stability of key state institutions in Ukraine” project by International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS) and Institute of Economics and Social Reforms in Slovakia (INEKO) with the support of US Embassy in Ukraine and SlovakAid.
JSC “Khmelnitskoblenergo” Electricity distribution service operator (DSO) in Khmelnytsk region, 70% of the company’s shares belong to the state, other 30% – to private legal entities and individuals. The company’s net profit in 2019 amounted to UAH 85.7 million, which is more than the profit of all state electricity DSOs in Ukraine combined. Dividends on the state share for 2019 amounted to about UAH 30 million.
The Government of Sweden and the United Nations Development Program are providing funding to support electronic and inclusive services for vulnerable groups in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said.
“Cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation will take place within the framework of the project ‘Digital, Inclusive, Accessible: Supporting the Digitization of Public Services in Ukraine’ (DIIA Support) with a total budget of UAH 128 million (approximately $4.5 million),” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
Fedorov wrote that this project is aimed at improving the quality of access of Ukrainians to electronic administrative and social services.
Within its framework, the Ministry of Digital Transformation will work on: providing comprehensive services for vulnerable groups of the population; developing of software for services and related equipment; creating sustainable infrastructure and access to information and communication technologies; raising the level of digital literacy; conducting communication campaigns about electronic services and providing support for users of services; developing a system of advanced training and a regulatory framework; creating educational and training programs for public authorities, Administrative Service Centres, and so on; cooperation with the office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the implementation period of the program is January 2021 – December 2023.
DIIA Support was launched by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine with the support of the Swedish Embassy.
The losses of Ukrainian shopping and shopping and entertainment centers (malls) due to the government’s imposition of weekend quarantine during Black Friday ranged from 30% to 40% of turnover, the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers and the Epicenter K trading network reported to Interfax-Ukraine.
“Due to the introduction of weekend quarantine, the Epicenter network was visited by 750,000 buyers less than last year, and the losses amounted to about UAH 1 billion. The company planned to use this amount of funds to invest in the Ukrainian economy,” the press service of the Epicenter K told the agency.
The drop in turnover in Ukrainian shopping and entertainment centers during the weekend quarantine period amounted to 30-40%, the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers reported.
“We expected that the losses would amount to at least 12 billion per month, but in fact, the weekend flows were partially offset by the growth of flows on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. These days, the flow increased by 10-20%, and the quarantine itself lasted three weeks. As a result, according to our calculations, losses amounted to UAH 6-7 billion in three weeks,” the Council noted.
The Epicenter company stressed that the biggest blow to retail was the ban on trade at weekends after Black Friday, when consumers traditionally plan to buy gifts for the New Year. In particular, this year, due to the weekend quarantine, online sales during the Black Friday period decreased by 30% compared to the same period in 2019.
“The stoppage of trade during the period of the greatest consumer demand has significantly reduced the purchasing power of the population, hit domestic producers and will lead to a decrease in tax payments to the budget,” Deputy Director General, Director of Retail Trade of Epicenter K LLC Volodymyr Honcharov is quoted in the comment.
He added that the network cooperates with 5,000 suppliers, most of which are Ukrainian producers.
“Some of them have already announced the forced reduction or even curtailment of production due to financial problems associated with the lack of sources of sale of goods. In addition, the reduction of tax payments to the budgets of all levels will deal a significant blow to the financial support of local communities, especially in small settlements,” he beleives.
Creative States coworking space launches its own franchise in early 2021, founder of the Creative States network Ilia Kenigshtein has said. “We decided to launch our own franchise at Creative States. This is a venture project, we’ll see if it works or not, and we will make an estimate. We are launching the franchise early next year, the same Franch is preparing it for us, headed by Roman Kyrylovych, who made the franchise for Rozetka, Smartass and many other cool projects,” Kenigshtein wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, the franchise is focused on the regions of Ukraine and beyond, except for Kyiv and Dnipro – cities where Creative States operates. At the same time, the company reserves the right to refuse cooperation if the selected location is not suitable for the network model.
Creative States plans to engage in location selection, design, construction and launch of a turnkey partner facility. In addition, the company will help partners attract tenants, including network clients.
“Our common goal with the franchisee is to ensure that the location comes out in aggregate not less than 28-30% of EBITDA in the annual range. More is better. This is good money, especially in the context of the commercial real estate segment,” added Kenigshtein.
He did not name the amount required to enter the project, specifying that it would not be the lowest, but promised to announce the conditions in the near future.
As reported, the Creative States of Arsenal co-working space in Kyiv was opened in May 2020. The object is located in the territory of the Arsenal plant at 8 Moskovska Street in Kyiv. Its total area is 4,100 square meters. The space is designed for 700 residents, includes 130 offices and 60 co-working seats.
The Creative States network also includes locations in the capital’s Senator and Gulliver business centers. It is also planned to open a co-working space in Dnipro, as well as to enter the European market.
Oleksiy Arestovych, non-staff advisor to the Head of the President’s Office on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense, announced the planned return of the post of special representative of the State Department of the United States for Ukraine, which was occupied by Kurt Walker in 2017-2019.
“There is strong support, so far informal, from Britain and the United States. The talk is about the fact that there will be a new United States special envoy for Donbas, that is, this post is institutionally returning. There are several statements by the French and German Foreign Ministries that Ukraine is making strong consistent steps on the implementation of agreements, and Russia is not doing this,” Arestovych told reporters after the press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that the future administration of United States President-elect Joe Biden is already considering the possibility of introducing tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation. “In the future Biden administration, many people say informally that sanctions will be imposed on Russia, which do not constrain, but cripple, break. Many people say that for every death of our soldier, artillery fire should be opened,” Arestovych said.
In addition, he said that on December 10, a meeting will be held at the level of the heads of EU states, where sanctions against the Russian Federation will be automatically extended. “The point is that they may even be strengthened after this demarche, after Russia once again showed that it is a state that does not fulfill international agreements at the highest level. Putin actually signed these agreements in Paris, and who did not fulfill them? President Zelensky gave a year to fulfill them. Who is to blame? The Russians,” the advisor said.
Arestovych said that Russia accuses France and Germany, the participants of the Normandy format, of playing the role of mediator in an inappropriate way and playing along with Ukraine. “In fact, Russia wants to get out not only from Minsk, but also from the Normandy format now,” he said.
