The supervisory board of Kniazha Life Vienna Insurance Group (Kyiv) on July 9 approved the acquisition of government domestic loan bonds for the amount of UAH 56 million by the company, which is 13.24% of the cost of its assets (UAH 422.896 million), according to information in the database of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market.
The company saw UAH 360.4 million in net profit in 2018, which is 12.5% more than a year ago. Its assets grew by 10.9%, to UAH 422.9 million.
Retained profit totaled UAH 83.149 million, while a year ago it was UAH 67.225 million. Net worth grew by 26.5%, to UAH 123.9 million. Total bills receivable fell by 17%, to UAH 3.185 million.
Noncurrent liabilities expanded to UAH 53.081 million, while current remained unchanged at UAH 33.551 million.
PrJSC Kniazha Life VIG was established in 1999 and specializes in life insurance.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) under EBRD’s Ukrainian Sustainable Energy Lending Facility III (USELF III), a EUR 250 million facility to support renewable energy in Ukraine, will partially finance construction of the Dnepro-Bugsky wind farm with a planned capacity of 110 MW located in Oleksandrivka (Kherson region).
The decision was made by the EBRD board on July 10, EBRD Senior Adviser External Affairs for Eastern Europe & Central Asia Usov told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
EBRD said that Dnepro-Bugsky Wind Power Station LLC is the borrower of the funds. The borrower is ultimately fully owned by three sponsors, Akuo Energy SAS (France), Saffelberg Investment NV (Belgium) and Aeolus Invest NV (Belgium). The limited liability company is a special purpose vehicle incorporated in Ukraine for the purpose of developing, constructing and operating the project.
The total cost of the project is EUR 188.64 million. The possible share to be paid by the EBRD is not disclosed.
According to other materials of the project posted on the bank’s website, Dnepro-Bugsky wind farm will belong to Akuo Energy.
The project consists of 25 4.4 MW turbines on the Dniprovsko-Buzsky Lyman, which will be delivered by Nordex. Under the project it is planned to build a 150 kV power line to the Posad-Pokrovska substation of 27.3 km long with 194 pillars.
The Boryspil international airport (Kyiv) in January-June 2019 saw a 20% rise in passenger flow year-over-year, to 6.7 million people, the airport’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
In January-June 2019, 5.218 million people were serviced on regular flights (arrivals and departures) (a rise of 23% over the same period in 2018), on irregular ones – 1.481 million people (a rise of 12%).
At the same time, the airport did not provide information on the number of passengers serviced on international and domestic flights.
The number of transfer passengers, according to the airport, for the period amounted to 1.56 million, which is 5.4% higher than in the first six months of 2018. The share of transfer passengers of the total passenger traffic was 23.3%.
In June 2019, the passenger traffic of the Boryspil airport amounted to 1.532 million people, which is 28% more than in June 2018, including 426,440 people on irregular flights (a rise of 30%).
The level of shadow economy in Ukraine in 2018 decreased by 2 percentage points (p.p.) compared to 2017, to 30% of the volume of official GDP, which is the lowest indicator since 2009, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has reported. “All the methods used for assessment of the level of shadow economy showed a decrease compared to 2017,” the document says. According to the report, the highest level of shadow economy was traditionally revealed by the method “population expenditures – retail turnover” at 46% of GDP, which is 2 p.p. lower compared to 2017.
Electric and monetary methods showed a decrease in the level of shadow economy by 1 percentage point each, to 27% and 23% of GDP respectively.
The level of shadow economy according to the method of loss-making enterprises fell to 18% of GDP, which is 4 p.p. less than in the same period of 2017.
In terms of sectors, the highest level of shadow last year was recorded in the sector of financial and insurance activities at 40% of the gross value added of the industry, which, however, 10 percentage points better than the 2017 figure. In the mining industry, according to the ministry’s estimates, the level of shadow economy declined by 8 percentage points, in trade by 5 percentage points, and in real estate transactions by 4 percentage points.
APS Holding (Prague, the Czech Republic), a large provider of investment and recovery services in Central Europe, jointly with Avistar (Kyiv), which has been operating on the Ukrainian toxic assets market for over nine years, is launching a pilot project – Gefest Group, Avistar Managing Partner Yuri Kostrobiy said at a briefing. According to him, under the Gefest Group pilot project, it is planned to build a service and investment structure with the introduction of a modern IT system throughout the entire cycle of work with toxic debts based on EU standards. Building an efficient service mechanism, procedures for servicing and working with distress assets is the main task of the pilot project, Kostrobiy said.
Director of the Department for Consolidated Sale of Assets of the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Ukraine Taras Yeleiko said at the briefing that APS Holding’s entry into the Ukrainian market is a landmark event for the Ukrainian non-performing loan (NPL) market.
“We are happy that such players as APS enter Ukraine who can move our market to the best global practices and make this movement irreversible,” he said.
The Deposit Guarantee Fund is one of the key players in the NPL market, which manages assets totaling more than EUR 18 billion, which were received as a result of the bankruptcy of more than 90 banks in the period from 2014 to 2018.
The Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) and the Oleksandr Razumkov Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Research will host a National Exit Poll for early parliamentary elections scheduled for July 21. “The consortium of the above-named organizations will conduct a survey on July 21 outside polling stations. The main aim of the project is to provide effective public control over the honesty of the elections,” Democratic Initiatives Foundation said on Thursday.
At the Ukrinform news agency, at 19:45, on July 21 consortium members will release results of their exit poll as of 18:00, and at 22:00 will release updated results with information received as of 20:00.
The field research phase will be carried out by KIIS and the Razumkov Center. The general totality of exit polls comprises voters who voted at polling stations in Ukraine (except for special polling stations — hospitals, prisons, military units, foreign polling stations, and with the exception of the occupied territories). The sample will be representative for Ukraine as a whole and for its four regions (West, Center, East and South). The results of the survey will be presented on a nationwide scale and in the context of the four regions.
The number of polling stations is 300 (150 for each sociological company). The sample size is about 13,000 respondents (depending on voter turnout). The number of respondents at each site is approximately 43 respondents on average. Interviewers will have special badges with the National Exit Poll symbols.
The statistical error of the sample, taking into account the design effect does not exceed 1.3%, but there are still errors that depend on various factors. Based on the experience of previous exit polls conducted using the same methodology, sociologists suggest that the sampling error will not exceed 2.5% for leaders and will be within 0.5-1% for other parties.
The National Exit Poll at the parliamentary elections-2019 is carried out with the financial support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), EU Representation in Ukraine, the Kyiv-based International Renaissance Foundation and Canadian Embassy in Ukraine.
