Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the Cabinet of Ministers before November 1, 2019 to introduce the mandatory wood electronic recording and design and submit to parliament a bill on the rules of selling wood at tenders.
According to a posting on the website of the president, the decree on some measures to preserve forests and rational use of forestry resources was signed on Tuesday.
According to the decree, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is tasked to develop and submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill approving the rules of selling timber on a competitive basis and introducing the unified public system of electronic wood records for all permanent forest users, a bill introducing criminal and administrative liability for the non-provision of information, provision of false information to the unified public system of electronic wood records.
The Cabinet of Ministers was ordered to develop and approve the procedure for monitoring domestic consumption of domestic unprocessed wood in pursuance of Article 4 of the law of Ukraine on the specifics of the public regulation of operation of business entities related to the sale and export of timber.
The government is to ensure access to information about wood flow in the open data format.
Before November 1, 2019, the government is to introduce electronic wood records by state-owned enterprises managed by the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, and ensure the publication of monthly reports on the status of implementation and operation of the electronic wood records system at these state-owned enterprises.
The regional administrations, the Kyiv City Administration are tasked to toughen control over the use and protection of forests, including take measures to counter illegal logging in accordance with the legislation.
The consolidated profit of Alfa-Bank and Ukrsotsbank, which are completing their merger, will be around UAH 1.5 billion in 2019, General Manager of the board of the Alfa-Bank banking group, Board Chairman of Ukrsotsbank Ivan Svitek has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, giving his forecast.
“So far, Ukrsots (bank) is still pulling us down on this indicator, but the situation has changed dramatically… By the end of 2019, we plan to reach a total profit of UAH 1.5 billion. Our profit growth dynamics is one of the highest in the market,” he said.
Svitek recalled that in 2018, with Alfa-Bank’s net profit of UAH 1.26 billion, which was the best indicator in the past 10 years, Ukrsotsbank’s net loss amounted to UAH 0.89 billion.
According to the NBU, following the results of four months, the total net profit of the two banks amounted to UAH 406.6 million: UAH 671.3 million from Alfa-Bank minus Ukrsotsbank’s loss of UAH 264.7 million, which is the 10th indicator on the market.
“This is still an echo of the past of Ukrsotsbank. However, we have managed to significantly reduce its losses, which were billions of U.S. dollars before our purchase,” the head of the banking group said, commenting on the results of the four months.
He said that the goal of the merged bank remains the same – to become the largest private bank in the Ukrainian market.
“And we are already in this position in terms of various indicators,” Svitek said.
He said that, speaking of the leading positions, it is about both the number of clients and the volume of assets.
“We are growing dynamically in retail, and in corporate lending we retain our positions,” the head of the banking group said.
According to him, the retention of the corporate loan portfolio is a good result, as the cleaned out NPLs have been replaced by new high-quality loans.
Asked whether Alfa-Bank’s goal is to increase its share in assets from the current 5.5% to 10%, the head of the banking group confirmed that such ambitions exist.
“If we reach 10%, it will be good,” he said, assuming that this could happen in the near future, but giving no other details.
At the same time, Svitek said that the number of branches for the bank is not an end in itself.
He also said that growth can be not only organic, but also through acquisitions.
“We will grow anyway. There are still assets on the market. We are looking at them, analyzing and ready to buy if something very interesting appears. We have a lot of experience and we know how to do it,” the head of the banking group, which in 2014 prior to the acquisition of Ukrsotsbank acquired the Bank of Cyprus, said.
Svitek added that loan portfolios are also interesting to Alfa-Bank, but they are few in the market. According to him, besides that, the financial institution looks at the assets offered by the Deposit Guarantee Fund, but so far has participated in only one tender, where it was a very small package.
The activity of construction on regional retail real estate markets is growing, and the reconceptualization trend for existing shopping centers would remain, UTG Director Evgenia Loktionova has said. “The construction of retail real estate is growing, and not only in Kyiv. There are all prerequisites for increasing it in the regions, as the concepts of the last five years are moving into an active construction phase, which will significantly influence the existing market. I think active construction will move to regions, and Kyiv will finish the started projects,” she said at a press conference on the results of the real estate market for the first half of 2019 at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
At the same time, according to Loktionova, in the next two years the reconceptualization trend and redevelopment of existing facilities in the retail real estate market will continue.
“Our most “sleeping” regions, where there are not many shopping centers that felt comfortable enough in the absence of competition, will now feel serious pressure. This is Khmelnytsky, where two facilities of 50,000 square meters are being built, Vinnytsia with a facility of more than 50,000 square meters, Dnipro with a facility of more than 100,000 square meters. Thus, all new facilities will be built taking into account the existing current trends and new tenants in the market, respectively, this will allow new shopping centers to be ahead 10 years of the existing centers,” Loktionova said.
In general, according to her, among those announced for opening before the end of 2022, 44 projects with a total lettable area of 1.36 million square meters are at different stages of implementation in Kyiv and the nearest suburbs.
According to Head of the UTG Strategic Consulting Department Konstantin Oleynik, if these projects are implemented and launched, there is a prospect of a surplus of retail space, which will lead to an increase in vacancy and lower rental rates in obsolete facilities.
“There are large facilities that can significantly affect the distribution of forces in the market. Some of the loudest are the River Mall shopping and entertainment center, Blockbuster Mall shopping and entertainment center, Lukyanivka shopping and entertainment center, and the second stage of the Auchan Rive Gauche shopping and entertainment center. In addition, there are a number of facilities that have just been announced, for example, a multifunctional complex in Lesia Kurbasa Avenue, the White Lines complex entering the active phase, the Respublika shopping center frozen in 2014, Ocean Mall shopping center, April Mall shopping center, Retroville shopping center, Lesnaya Mall shopping center,” Oleynik said.
According to the expert, among the projects for reconstruction/reconceptualization in Kyiv is the Karavan shopping and entertainment center, which will turn into an outlet center, the Lukyanivka shopping center, the Dream Town shopping center, and the Gorodok Gallery shopping center. The tenants of the Sirius shopping center in Troyeschyna, which will become the New Way shopping center of the district format, will change, and the Marmelad shopping center will also be updated.
According to UTG, in 2019, the Smart Plaza Obolon shopping center and the Oasis shopping center opened.
Thus, as of the end of June 2019, there were six regional trading facilities operating in Kyiv, 26 – district, 24 – microdistrict, 18 – specialized and 32 detached hypermarkets.
Despite this, the company records a reduction in the vacancy rate of retail space to 5.5%, and the entry of new international retailers to the market, such as Decathlon and In Wear Matinique, contributed to this. Until the end of the year, another seven operators are expected to enter the market, among which are Ikea, The North Face, Eataly, Funday, and others.
According to the UTG’s information, the average daily attendance of the shopping and entertainment centers at the beginning of July 2019 is 677 people per 1,000 square meters, which is 4% higher than in the same period in 2018. In terms of saturation with high-quality retail space, Kyiv is ahead of Budapest and Sofia, with an indicator of 527.1 square meters per 1,000 inhabitants.
According to the company, rental rates in U.S. dollars have increased by $0.9 since the beginning of the year and amounted to $24-70 per square meter a month. At the same time, fixed rental rates for restaurants and cafes are $15-30, for large-format clothing stores (600-1,500 square meters) – $1.5-20, for fashion galleries (100-200 square meters) – up to $70, for cinemas – $4-15, for grocery supermarkets – up to $15.
The new Ukrainian chain of futuristic capsule hotels Monotel plans to open its first facility near Besarabska Square in August, and two more in Zoloti Vorota (Golden Gate) and near the Kyiv’s bike track – by the end of 2019, the press service of the operator has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We are planning to open the first facility on Independence Day. It will be located at 9/28 Shevchenko Boulevard and will be designed for 28 people. It includes women’s and men’s bedrooms with 10 beds each and one bedroom for couples with four double capsules. The total area of the hotel is about 300-350 square meters,” Marketing Partner of the Monotel project Ksenia Chigarkina said.
According to her, the investor and owner of the first hotel is the ideologist of the Monotel network, Hanna Osypenko (previously headed the Capitol Invest company). Since the chain is planning to develop a franchise, the second and third hotels will follow the model of the first Monotel hotel with the participation of other private investors.
“By October, we will open a hotel in Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street, and in November-December – near the Zoloti Vorota. The hotel in Khmelnytsky Street will have an expanded format. It will be a monotel and a monohub, where you can work and live 24/7. These will be two independent facilities that will create a unique product on the market in a pair,” Chigarkina said, adding that the chain’ss plans include launching Monotel hotels in Lviv and Odesa, and also, possibly, abroad.
According to her, investments in the opening of the hotel total from $1,200 to $1,500 per square meter. Thus, the launch of one facility will cost about $400,000-500,000. Business owners expect to return the invested funds in two and a half or three years.
ARX Insurance Company (formerly AXA Insurance, Kyiv) in January-June 2019 collected more than UAH 1 billion in premiums, which is 23% more than in the first half of 2018, according to a press release of the insurer. The amount of insurance claim fee payments for this period amounted to about UAH 473 million, which is 4% more than in the same period of 2018.
The company notes that the main drivers of growth were KASKO with 19% more premiums collected, voluntary medical insurance with 43% more premiums, online sales with 2.1-time more premiums, agricultural insurance with 3.9-time more premiums compared to the same period last year.
As reported, from July 1, 2019 AXA Insurance was renamed ARX Insurance Company. AXA Life Insurance began operating under the ARX Life brand.
The companies continue to work with all the banks, car dealers, partners in the regional network, corporate clients, as well as with the same assistance companies and contractors. The main shareholder of both companies is Fairfax Limited (Canada).
Ukraine’s parliament, has ratified the international agreement on free trade between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Israel.
Some 230 lawmakers voted for corresponding bill No. 0223 at a plenary session of parliament on Thursday.
