SALIC UK Ltd, the common investor in the merged business CFG/Mriya, plans to send over $50 million for boosting technical fleet in 2019.
“Now there is new equipment for $10 million. This year it is planned to send more than $50 million to the technical fleet,” Chief Integration Officer of the merged company CFG/Mriya Georg von Nolcken said during the presentation of the new technology on Friday.
CFG/Mriya recently received another batch of new agricultural equipment purchased in the production season 2019. In addition to the 17 units of trailed agricultural equipment purchased early March, the agricultural holding expanded its technical fleet with 13 370-hp and 18 240-hp Massey Ferguson tractors, 10 New Holland self-propelled sprayers and other tillage and special equipment worth $8.7 million
In general, since the beginning of the year, CFG/Mriya has expanded its technical fleet with 60 units of agricultural equipment worth $11 million, and in the near future, another 190 units are expected to be delivered.
For the harvesting campaign for the next few months, it is also planned to purchase combines, loaders and transport trailers.
Mriya Agro Holding is a vertically integrated agribusiness, which was founded by Ivan Huta in 1992. The holding’s land bank is 165,000 hectares. Its grain elevators are able to store 380,000 tonnes.
In August 2014, Mriya reported an overdue payment of about $9 million in interest income and about $120 million in repayment of debt on its obligations. The total debt to all financial creditors, taking into account the guarantees provided to the companies related to the Huta family, was about $1.3 billion at the time of the holding’s default.
In early February 2015, the operating control of the holding was transferred to creditors who elected the new management, and in September 2016 the committees of creditors and bondholders of the holding agreed on the conditions for the restructuring of the company’s debt, which was estimated at $1.1 billion. The debt restructuring ended in August 2018. Mriya’s total debt burden decreased from $1.1 billion to $309.5 million, which included $49.3 million in restructured secured debt, $208.1 million in restructured unsecured debt (eurobonds), $46 million in working capital, and $6.1 million in assets under a new leasing program for the purchase of equipment.
In September 2018, SALIC UK Limited announced the acquisition of the holding. The deal was completed in November 2018.
Mriya continues operations in Ukraine together with SALIC UK’s subsidiary, CFG.
The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Sovereign Fund of Saudi Arabia. The company invests in the production of agricultural and livestock products.
CFG has been operating in Ukraine since 2006. It cultivates 45,000 hectares of land in Lviv and Ternopil regions.
JKX Oil & Gas with assets in Ukraine and Russia in 2018 saw $15.26 million in net profit compared with net loss of $17.66 million in 2017. This is the first profit of the company since 2013.
According to unaudited preliminary results of the company posted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Friday, its revenue grew by 24.4%, to $92.87 million benefitting from high sales prices in Ukraine.
Average price of gas in 2018 was 29.6% higher than in 2017, being $307.80 per 1,000 cubic meters, that for oil – 15.1% more ($74 per barrel), and LPG – 16.5% more ($544 per tonne).
According to the document, the company moved into to net cash position of $8.2 million ($9.7 million net debt position in 2017).
Last year the company’s capital expenditure totaled $11.8 million, including $11.1 million related to Ukraine.
In 2018, group average production was 8,937 boepd (2017: 8,657 boepd), an overall increase in production of 3.2%. In Ukraine the figure grew by 4.8%, to 3,677 boepd, in Russia by 2.9%, to 5,169 boepd and in Hungary it fell by 30.5%, to 91 boepd.
JKX Oil & Gas is engaged in exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, and Slovakia.
The largest shareholders of JKX are Eclairs Group of Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov with 27.47% of the shares, Keyhall Holding with 11.42%, Neptune Invest & Finance Corp with 12.95%, and Interneft Ltd with 6.6%.
Kness Group, a large EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor in Ukraine, plans to build around 500 MW of capacities of solar power plants in 2019 for various investors, boosting the volume of projects implemented by the company to 1 GW, Kness Group co-founder Yevhen Didichenko said on Thursday during the discussion devoted to the renewable energy in details organized by Golaw law firm.
Didichenko spoke in favor of adopting a law on green auctions, adding that investors will be interested in bidding and receive guaranteed government support for 20 years. According to him, the cost of building solar power plants in the world is decreasing at a higher than expected rate, so the current tariff for the sale of electricity generated by solar power plants is somewhat overestimated.
At the same time, the Kness Group is concerned about the uncertainty of the mechanism for the distribution of quotas of renewable energy. According to Didichenko, the quotas should be set in proportion to bids from different types of generation. Auctions should be held for the two main types of “green” generation – solar and wind – separately.
“Projects in wind power can be very large. As a result, they may either not have enough quotas, or the project will remain completely unfulfilled,” Didichenko said. In his opinion, the volume of quotas should correlate with the volumes of balancing capacities, but today this issue in Ukraine is not raised yet.
The DCH Group, uniting assets of Ukrainian businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, under a strategy of increasing effectiveness of the mining and metal business has created DCH Steel, which will manage the respective assets: Dniprovsky Metallurgical Combine (DMZ, Dnipro) and Sukha Balka ore mining enterprise (Kryvy Rih).
According to the information on the official website of DCH, the essence of the transformation is to optimally build a management system for mining and metal enterprises at the stage of implementing large-scale investment projects.
According to DCH, Yaroslavsky plans to invest from $150 million to $200 million in his mining and metallurgical business over the next five years. Owning to these investments, in particular, the blast furnace stock of coke-chemical production will be restored at the DMZ and a continuous casting machine will be built, and at Sukha Balka it is planned to organize a processing plant, to develop ore deposit at deeper levels, and to upgrade equipment.
“In the process of gradual vertical integration, the production chain ore mining-enrichment-agglomeration-smelting of iron will be formed,” the group said.
According to the press release, at the level of DCH Steel, general management functions will be centralized, and manufacturing companies will focus their efforts on production and improvement of technology. The expected results of optimizing the management of the mining and metallurgical business of the DCH are to eliminate dependence on external supplies of sinter, to ensure a positive synergy of the activities of the DMZ and the mining enterprise, which should increase competitiveness and sustainability, as well as improve financial performance.
Zelensky, Poroshenko reach second round of presidential race – national exit poll
Showman Volodymyr Zelensky is the leader in the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine with 30.4% supportive votes, incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko has 17.8% of the votes, leader of Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko – 14.2%, according to the National exit poll.
Some 9.8% of voters backed the candidate from the Opposition Platform – For Life Yuri Boiko, 7.1% of voters cast their votes in favor of leader of Hromadianska Pozytsia (Civil Position) Party Anatoliy Hrytsenko, 6.4% – former Security Service Head Ihor Smeshko, 4.8% – leader of Radical Party Oleh Liashko, and 4.0% – candidate from the Opposition Block – the Party of Peace and Development Oleksandr Vilkul.
In the regional context, Zelensky is leading in the south of Ukraine (42.0%), 30.7% of Ukrainians in the east cast their votes in favor of Zelensky, 28.6% in the center and 21.2% in the west of the country.
Poroshenko got the most of votes in the west of Ukraine (26.0%), 19.5% in the center, 11.1% in the south and in 9.6% the east.
Tymoshenko has almost the same support in the west (17.8%) and in the center of Ukraine (17.5%), in the south she was supported by 9.5% of voters, and by 7.3% in the east.
Some 27.2% voted in favor of Boiko in the east of Ukraine, 15.2% in the south, 5.7% in the center, and 1.9% in the west.
Hrytsenko saw the greatest support in the west of the country (12.6%), 7.4% in the center, 3.3% in the south and 2.7% in the east.
The national exit poll was conducted by a consortium of Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) and the Razumkov Centre.
