Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

OFFICIAL RATES OF BANKING METALS FROM NATIONAL BANK AS OF APRIL 27

Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of April 27

One troy ounce=31.10 grams

,

1,000 CLINICS IN UKRAINE INCREASE FINANCING FROM CENTRAL BUDGET

Around 1,000 clinics have increased financing from the central bank under phase two of the healthcare reform, acting Head of the National Health Service of Ukraine Oksana Movchan has said. “About 1,000 medical institutions received more money from the central budget under contracts with the National Health Service, some of them by 70%, some by 5%, some by 50%,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
She said that medical institutions have two sources of financing – the central budget and the local one.
“The National Health Service manages the money of the central budget. Previously, it was a healthcare subvention, but now it is a healthcare guarantee program. In 2020, more money was allocated from the central budget for the healthcare guarantee program,” she said.
At the same time, according to her, about 600 medical institutions for various reasons received less money from the central budget.

, ,

EVT PORT GRAIN TERMINAL COMPLETES SINKING PILES FOR 20 NEW SILOS

EVT port grain terminal has completed sinking 4,000 piles for erecting 20 grain silos as part of phase three of the development of the terminal, the press service of EVT said on Friday.
“Sinking piles in the ground is the most difficult and time-consuming step in the construction of silos. The advantage of this method is the reliability and stability of the structure, as well as the ability to carry out excavation work in a short time,” the press service said.
As reported, the piles were sunk to a depth of 13 meters. For each silo, 200 piles were driven. Next, the concrete foundation of the future silos was poured.
According to EVT, nine such bases are currently ready. The installation of metal structures and the assembly of the domes of three silos are going on. The dome of the first silo is being prepared for raising.
It is planned that by the beginning of the 2020/2021 agricultural year, the construction of eight silos with a storage capacity of 8,800 cubic meters each will be fully completed.

, , ,

PHASE ONE OF EASING LOCKDOWN IN UKRAINE REOPENS PARKS, FACILITIES OF BEAUTY INDUSTRY, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL STORES

Phase one of easing the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) foresees control over the spread of the disease, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said.
According to a table posted by the prime minister in social networks, if the trajectory of the detected cases among all the tested does not change or the daily deviation is kept at 5% within a 10-day period, the government will reopen parks and public gardens, some of the facilities of the beauty industry, and allow training for team sports.
Also, in this case, the work of wholesale and retail stores selling nonfood items, take-away coffee shops, the operation of car washing outlets, bike shops, bike rental points will be allowed, as well as notaries, lawyers and auditors can operate.

UKRAINE LAUNCHES PRODUCTION OF PCR TESTS

Ukraine has launched the domestic production of PCR tests and the first batch of 200,000 tests has been sent to regions, Secretary of the Coordination Council for Fight against COVID-19, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.
“As we promised a few weeks ago, Ukraine has launched the production of PCR tests. Today we have received the first batch of 200,000 tests. They will be sent to regions, the laboratories specialized in PCR testing, during the weekend,” the president’s press service cited him.
According to Tymoshenko, another batch of 400,000 tests is expected to be ready next week. The production of domestic PCR tests will continue and they will be distributed among healthcare institutions.

,

INTERNET REVENUES OF UKRTELECOM GREW BY 7% IN Q1

PJSC Ukrtelecom reduced EBITDA by 6.1% in January-March 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, to UAH 400 million, according to a press release released by the operator.
EBITDA margin for that period decreased by 0.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 25.5%, and net income by 5%, to UAH 1.6 billion.
Ukrtelecom said that the key positive factor influencing the company’s income is a steady increase in receipts from the provision of Internet services and data transfer.
“The revenues increased by 7%, to UAH 521 million in the first quarter of 2020 compared to last year. At the same time, the average traffic consumption by one Ukrtelecom home Internet subscriber grew by 25%, to almost 117 GB, and among users of optics to 235 GB, which is to some extent due to quarantine measures introduced in March,” the operator said in a statement.
In general, the income from telecommunications services of Ukrtelecom decreased by 7% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to UAH 1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2019.
According to the operator, that was significantly affected by a decrease in revenue from fixed telephony, which is a global tendency for voice services. Ukrtelecom revenue from the provision of this service in that period amounted to UAH 574 million, which is 20.9% less than in January-March 2019. The company also told Interfax-Ukraine that compared with the same period in 2019, the receivables of the government to the operator for providing services to privileged categories of the population increased by 8%, to UAH 144 million.
Capital investments amounted to UAH 112 million for the first quarter of 2020.
“Strictly observing measures to prevent the spread of [coronavirus] COVID-19 in Ukraine, Ukrtelecom continues to implement a number of projects to develop an optical infrastructure that can reduce the digital divide in the country. The operator is expanding the geography of optics by connecting small towns and social facilities to the high-speed Internet,” the operator said.
In the first three months of 2020, Ukrtelecom laid almost 1,400 kilometers of fiber-optic cable and connected to the optical Internet about 100 medical and educational institutions, as well as 39 merged territorial communities. The Internet access network of Ukrtelecom covered 2,430 cities and villages of Ukraine for the first quarter of 2020.
Revenues from the commercial lease of property, which is not involved in production, increased by 24% compared to the first quarter of 2019 and amounted to UAH 87.5 million. Ukrtelecom transferred UAH 478 million in taxes to budgets of all levels in January-March of 2020. The company refused to disclose the net financial result for the first quarter.