International markets positively responded to the results of early elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: eurobonds grew by 1 percentage point (p.p.), warrants by 2 p.p., up to 77.5% of the nominal value, Serhiy Fursa, a specialist for the sale of debt securities from Dragon Capital investment company, has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“International markets are responding positively, the price of all eurobonds is rising. GDP warrants, which rose by 3.3% to a historical maximum, showed the largest growth. It seems that the expectations of economic growth and hryvnia expectations among foreigners have increased,” Oleksandr Paraschiy, the head of the analytical department at Concorde Capital investment company, said.
According to him, Western investors like the idea of consolidating power in the same hands: at least, this means an end to political instability, and also gives a chance for quick pro-Western reforms. The analyst added that foreigners are not very afraid of the risk of usurpation of power: the situation when one political force forms a government looks familiar and acceptable for Western countries.
Ukraine is utilizing 100% of its existing capacity for importing natural gas, Serhiy Makohon, the head of Gas Transportation System Operator of Ukraine, has said.
“The day has come! Imports of gas reached 66.3 million cubic meters, which represents 100% of our technical capacity. A landmark event,” Makohon wrote on Facebook.
The GTS’ throughput capacity on Ukraine’s border is 42.5 mcm/day from Slovakia, 19.5 mcm/day from Hungary, and 4.3 mcm/day from Poland.
Ukraine is planning to start the 2019/2020 heating season with 20 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities, as it fears that Russia’s Gazprom will stop transporting gas through its territory after this year.
As of the morning of July 20, some 15.018 bcm was in underground storage, CEO of Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev said on Facebook earlier on Monday.
Between July 1 and July 20, some 1.473 bcm was pumped in, or 73.7 mcm per day. In June, 71.9 mcm/day was pumped in, and 62.9 mcm/day in May.
Ukraine spent $68.666 million on nuclear fuel for its power plants in the five months of 2019.
According to the State Statistics Service, $17.437 million was spent on Russian fuel and $51.229 million on Swedish fuel. Thus, Russia’s TVEL provided 25.4% of its fuel, and Sweden’s Westinghouse 74.6%.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting with the Mexican businessman, CEO of Principal Standard Group Peter Foyo has stated that he was ready to support establishment of cooperation between his company and Ukraine if it could help provide Ukrainian state or private enterprises with contracts.
“We are open to everything that creates new business in Ukraine and jobs for our citizens,” Zelensky said, noting that he considers any investment project important, regardless of whether it is an investment of a million or a billion.
According to the presidential press service, at a meeting with Foyo and his partner, Vice President of UTG (Ukrainian Trade Guild) Ihor Melnyk, Zelensky stressed that the state is ready to protect “any clean, real investment in Ukraine.”
The president said that, despite rather busy work schedule, he is always ready to find time for projects useful for Ukraine and sit down at the negotiating table for a substantive conversation.
Foyo, in turn, thanked for the meeting and noted that it was a great honor for him to be in Ukraine, since his wife is Ukrainian and he lives with his family in Mexico and in Ukraine.
The businessman said his specialization is telephony and telecommunications services, which is relevant in the context of development of mobile communications in Ukraine and preparations for the launch of 5G. He said the position of President Zelensky on building constructive cooperation on the principles of openness was important for him.
Ukraine in January-May 2019 imported 3.491 billion cubic meters of natural gas for a total of $800.324 million, in particular in May some 1.218 billion cubic meters for $250.028 million, according to the State Statistics Service.
Thus, the average price of gas imported by the country in May 2019 was $205.3 per 1,000 cubic meters, which is 2.4% less than in April 2019 ($210.4).
In the five months, imports from Switzerland amounted to 1.218 billion cubic meters of gas for $275.519 million, from Germany to 1.031 billion cubic meters for $228.196 million, Hungary to 266.117 million cubic meters for $57.3 million, Poland some 285.336 million cubic meters worth $62.347 million, Austria to 204.973 million cubic meters for $59.577 million, the Czech Republic to 153.797 million cubic meters for $34.207 million, France to 140.458 million cubic meters for $32.106 million, the UK some 93.25 million cubic meters for $25.952 million, Luxembourg to 73.959 million cubic meters for $19.982 million, Italy to 16.893 million cubic meters for $3.487 million, Slovakia to 6.309 million cubic meters worth $1.448 million, and Bulgaria some 962,000 cubic meters for $206,000.
Ukraine did not import gas from the Russian Federation during this period.
The chief operating officer of U.S.-based Trident Acquisitions Corp., the ex-head of Smart-Holding, Oleksiy Tymofeyev, launches a challenge to attract investment in Ukraine if the Servant of the People party fulfills the promised reforms. “If Zelensky’s team fulfills its checklist of reforms, I pledge to personally bring to Ukraine at least $100 million in direct investment per year. Each has its own Ironman [the triathlon competition]. I have one,” he said on Facebook.
The candidate for people’s deputy from the Servant of the People party, David Arakhamiya [also knows as David Braun], who was appointed member of the Ukroboronprom supervisory board by the president of Ukraine in July, noted in his commentary to Tymofeyev “I’ll hold you to that!”
Chairman of the board of ATF Bank (Kazakhstan), the ex-director for business development at Nova Poshta, Serhiy Kovalenko, also said in comments that he is ready to support the initiative with an investment amount of $50 million.
The manager of the asset development and valuation department of DTEK Oil&Gas, Yuriy Moroz, in turn, wrote that he would run the Ironman competition if Tymofeyev attracts the promised investments.
