The European Investment Bank (EIB) could provide a loan in the amount of EUR 50 million to Unit Holdings LLC for the development of the UNIT.City innovative campus.
According to an explanatory note to the draft Cabinet of Ministers resolution on approval of the letter of the government of Ukraine to the European Investment Bank on the Innovative Campus for Ukraine project, the bank on December 12, 2019 received a request for support from Unit Holdings in the amount of EUR 50 million to finance the development of project documentation and building individual components of the innovative campus.
The government, in turn, plans to approve and send a letter to the bank on the belonging of the financing proposal to the scope of the framework agreement Between Ukraine and the EIB.
The Innovative Campus for Ukraine project is implemented by Unit Holdings within the framework of the goals of the state policy, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers activity program adopted by the parliament in October 2019.
UNIT.City Innovation Park officially opened in April 2017 in the territory of the former Kyiv Motorcycle Plant.
Unit Holdings LLC was established in November 2017. Its core business is the development of construction projects. According to the unified state register, the ultimate beneficiary is the founder of UFuture holding, Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
UFuture is a holding company that combines Khmelnytsky’s business and social projects. It has a diversified portfolio of assets in real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals and IT. The value of UFuture’s assets is estimated at $550 million. The total capitalization of the businesses in which it invested exceeds $1 billion.
Nova Poshta Global, a part of the Nova Poshta Group, has started delivering parcels from China’s AliExpress trading platform to Ukraine by trucks. The press service of the company said on Tuesday that last week a truck with parcels from AliExpress departed from the Chinese city of Urumchi and overcame the distance of around 6,000 kilometers before reaching the sorting center in Kyiv on May 12.
The truck delivered 7,467 parcels from AliExpress for Nova Poshta clients.
“The pilot shipment showed that it is possible to meet the planned time of delivery by truck. In general, the journey from Urumchi to Warsaw took six days and the two more days to Kyiv. The transit and customs did not take a long time. We continue introducing the multimodal delivery services and testing new means of transport and routes in order to make delivery time as short as possible for our customers,” the press service quoted Nova Poshta Global CEO Yuriy Benevytsky as saying.
Now the company can deliver parcels from AliExpress by air, railway and motor vehicles.
As reported, Nova Poshta Global noted a 28% increase in Ukrainians’ orders from AliExpress compared to April last year.
Nova Poshta Global (formerly Nova Poshta International) has been providing international express delivery services since 2015, and is part of the Nova Poshta group of companies. Nova Poshta Global is developing the NP Shopping service – the delivery from online stores in the United States, China, Britain and Poland, provides import and export services for businesses and the ability to ship from any Nova Poshta branch to most countries of the world.
Kormotech LLC (Lviv region), a large Ukrainian manufacturer of cat and dog feed, has signed a three-year contract with the Norwegian online store Dyrekassen on the supply of a pet ration. According to a press release of Kormotech, through the Dyrekassen online store, an exclusive distributor, the company plans to sell 18 tonnes of feed by the end of 2020. It is planned to sell another 100 tonnes of products over the next two years.
Together with a new partner, Kormotech is also working to ensure that after lockdown Optimeal rations are sold in garden centers in Norway and Sweden. This is about 220 stores.
The company said that these are dry and wet rations for cats and dogs under the Optimeal brand in the super premium segment. They are made according to the Swiss fresh meat technology.
Kormotech said that Norway has become the 29th pet export country.
“We are actively working to enter export markets throughout Scandinavia. These are countries with very high quality requirements for products. We have overcome similar complexity procedures to enter the U.S. and UK markets. Kormotech is on the way to getting into the top five world manufacturers of pet feed,” the company said, citing CEO of Kormotech Rostyslav Vovk.
Kormotech LLC is the leading Ukrainian producer of feed for cats and dogs. The company exports products to 29 countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Iran and Chile.
The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Olena and Rostyslav Vovk.
Bank of America (BofA) analysts expect a decline in Ukraine’s GDP in 2020 by 5.6%, according to a review of the investment bank.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during Freedom of Speech of Savik Shuster program on Ukraine TV Channel later on Friday presented a brief strategy of gradual weakening of the quarantine for the period from early May to early July.
The decline of Ukraine’s real GDP in 2020 could be 6-8%, the ICU investment group has said.
The lack of government support for the creative industry during the quarantine period can lead to massive unemployment in the industry and a drop in GDP, Head of the Verkhovna Rada committee for humanitarian and information policy MP Oleksandr Tkachenko has told Interfax-Ukraine.
Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Ukraine’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Stable from Positive and affirmed the IDR at ‘B’.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has worsened the forecast of the balance of payments in 2020 to a deficit of $1.1 billion from a surplus of $3.2 billion, but expects its surplus to be restored as early as 2021.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revised downwards the assessment of the pace of real GDP of Ukraine for 2020 from 3.5% growth to 5% decline, while improving the expectations for its growth in 2021 from 4% to 4.3%.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the Ukrainians to continue observing quarantine restrictions throughout the May holidays so that the state authorities could begin softening the quarantine starting May 11
The drop in gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in January-February 2020 amounted to 0.2%, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said that the Cabinet of Ministers will present its plan and steps to restore the economy after the turning point in the development of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is seen and which the country is moving towards in a moderate and smooth pace.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects that Ukraine’s GDP would fall by 7.7% in 2020 and grow by 3.6% in 2021, according to the World Economic Outlook published by the IMF on Tuesday.
Consumer prices in Ukraine in April grew by 0.8%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
At the same time, in April last year, price growth was higher: it was 1%, therefore, inflation in April 2020 year-over-year slowed to 2.1% from 2.3% in March and 4.1% in 2019 .
The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine has decided to cut the key policy rate from 10% to 8%, the NBU said. The NBU expects that the key policy rate to be reduced further, to 7% in the current year.
Industrial production in Ukraine in March 2020 decreased by 7.7% compared to March 2019, while in February the decline was 1.5%, in January 5.1%, in December 2019 also 7.7%, the State Statistics Service has said.
Ukrainians, who occurred in the South Republic of Africa during quarantine, have asked Foreign Minister of Ukraine to help them to return to the motherland. According to the submission letter, which is in disposal of Interfax-Ukraine, there are a woman with a chronic disease who needs prescribed medicine, seventh month pregnant woman, a woman with one year old child are among those who wish come back home.
“Most visas have expired long ago…The Ukrainian Embassy in South Africa provides us with as much information as possible, but nothing depends on them,” reads the letter.
Ukrainians ask to provide them guarantees for a speed returning home.
“We are ready to undergo self-isolation under the program Diy Vdoma. But first, we need to reach home. There are our compatriots in the neighboring African countries. Why can’t they grab us together all in all?,” reads the text of the letter.
The net profit of UkrSibbank (Kyiv) at the end of 2019 amounted to UAH 2.58 billion, which is 3% less than in 2018 (UAH 2.66 billion), according to the annual report of the financial institution. According to the bank, its net profit in the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 33% compared to the same indicator in 2018 and amounted to UAH 507.42 million.
UkrSibbank’s net interest income for 2019 compared to 2018 increased by 8.4%, to UAH 4.21 billion, while the expenses on creating reserves for expected credit losses amounted to UAH 153.29 million, whereas in 2018 the bank, on the contrary, received an additional UAH 121.28 million.
Bank assets over the past year increased by 2%, to UAH 53.20 billion, in particular, loans and customer debt decreased by 18.2%, to UAH 21.37 billion, and the volume of securities and investments in associates and subsidiaries increased 5.3 times, to UAH 13.33 billion.
The liabilities of UkrSibbank for the indicated period increased by 2.5%, to UAH 46.42 billion, including the amount of customer funds in the bank that grew by 10.5%, to UAH 45.42 billion.
The equity capital of UkrSibbank for 2019 increased by UAH 53.58 million, to UAH 6.78 billion, and the size of its charter capital remained unchanged being UAH 5.07 billion.
UkrSibbank was founded in 1990. At the beginning of the year, its shareholders were BNP Paribas S.A (France), which owns 60% of the bank’s charter capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with 40%.
According to the NBU, as of January 1, 2020, UkrSibbank ranked ninth in terms of total assets among 75 operating banks in Ukraine.
