Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINE RAISES REQUIREMENTS FOR OPERATORS OF PRIVATIZATION AUCTIONS

The Cabinet of Ministers has raised the requirements for operators of privatization auctions, in particular, an operator must have at least six employees, a charter capital of at least UAH 1 million and its own call center for selection.
According to the draft regulation, the auction operator must also have an excellent business reputation with regard to the law on prevention and counteraction of legalization (laundering) of proceeds.
In addition, the requirement presupposes having at least a year of experience in the market for the sale of property in the form of auctions and cryptographic protection for a secure connection between the server and bidders.
As indicated in the draft regulation, the charge rate for participation in the privatization auction for an object worth more than UAH 64 million is set at 1% (previously it was set for objects worth over UAH 250 million), from UAH 4 million to UAH 64 million it is 2.5% (previously the charge rate of 2.4% was set for objects from UAH 1 million to UAH 4 million), and up to UAH 4 million it is 4% (previously the maximum charge was 3% for objects up to UAH 1 million).

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OVOSTAR CUTS EGG SALES IN JAN-SEPT

Ovostar Union, a vertically integrated holding company, one of the leading egg and egg products producer in Ukraine, in January-September 2020 cut shell egg sales by 10.5% year-over-year, to 795 million. Lower sales volume is accounted for by reduction of trading activities in the reporting period.
According to a company report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) last week, egg production grew by 3.8%, to 1.236 billion. Export of eggs fell by 41.2%, to 266 million eggs. The share of export of total sales was 34% versus 50% a year ago. Average price of eggs fell by 8%, to $0.056 per egg.
The group said that in January-September 2020, 433 million eggs were processed. The output of dry and liquid egg products was 2,597 tonnes (a rise of 19%) and 9,983 tonnes (a fall of 5%).
Sales volume of dry egg products grew by 39%, to 2,417 tonnes, including 71% was exported. Liquid egg products sales fell by 7%, to 9,692 tonnes, including 36% exported.
Average selling price of dry egg products fell by 8% to $4.05 per kg, and average selling price of liquid egg products decreased 16%, to $1.19 per kg.
As of 30 September 2020 total flock of the company was 8.1 million heads demonstrating 3% increase year-over-year. The laying flock grew by 3% year-over-year and reached 6.9 million heads.
“It is worth saying that during the nine months of the year the company has been quite successful in responding to the challenges related the COVID-19 pandemic and unfavorable macroeconomic environment. We have managed to minimize negative effects on the group’s operations and to increase production volumes. In general, the management finds the operational results for the reporting period satisfactory,” CEO Borys Bielikov said.

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KYIVSTAR LAUNCHES 4G IN SUMY REGION

The mobile operator Kyivstar launched 4G in 182 villages of Sumy region, in particular, in such villages as Anastasivka, Boromsia, Voloshnivka, Vorozhba, Lytvynovychi, Mala Pavlivka, Mezenivka, Pisky, Krasne, Yunakivka and others.
“More than 46,000 rural residents of the region were able to use mobile Internet of Kyivstar network at high speeds up to 100 Mbps. For this, Kyivstar has equipped 27 base stations with modern technological means of radio communications of the LTE standard,” the company’s press service said on Monday, October 26.
Kyivstar notes that during the entire development of LTE technology in Ukraine, the operator has provided access to high-speed mobile Internet for 84% of the population.

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TURKEY INTERESTED IN COMPLETING AN-225 – DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

The Turkish side at the recent negotiations between the presidents of the two countries in Ankara announced its interest in the possibility of completing the second unit of the world’s largest transport aircraft An-225 Mriya, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine Oleh Urusky has said.
“The situation was quite strange for me when, during the visit, President of Turkey and me raised the issue of completing the second Mriya and even despite the sum I said it would cost, the Turkish side said that we would continue discussion,” Urusky said at a press conference in Kyiv.
According to him, experts’ negotiations on this issue are expected.
“We cannot either complete the manufacture of Ruslan (An-125) or build new ones. However, we can complete the manufacture of Mriya both theoretically and practically,” the deputy prime minister said.
He added that the matter concerns the possibility of purchasing the An-178 medium transport aircraft, since Turkey has an interest in strategic transport aircraft.
The An-225 Mriya is the largest and most powerful transport aircraft in the world, created by Kyiv Antonov Design Bureau. The An-225 with a maximum curb weight of 640 tonnes is the heaviest aircraft in the world. In November 2004, the World Air Sports Federation included the An-225 into the Guinness World Records for its 240 records.

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ZALK AFTER LONG DOWNTIME BEGINS SMELTING ALUMINUM

PJSC Zaporizhia aluminum mill ZAlK after a long idle period has started smelting aluminum from secondary metals.
“Today, 300 kg of aluminum have been smelted from secondary raw materials – aluminum scrap,” the Interfax-Ukraine’s source said.
According to the source, this happened after a long downtime in production activities: “Before that, we had not smelted aluminum for a long time,” the source said.
According to the source, the smelting of only 300 kg does not mean the resumption of industrial production.
“So far there are no stable prospects,” the source said.
Previously, ZAlK was the only primary aluminum producer in Ukraine.
The owner of ZAlK in 2004 was the Russian group SUAL. In 2007, the plant came under the control of RusAl, created by the merger of the aluminum and alumina assets of RusAl, SUAL and the Swiss trader Glencore.
In many years of litigation, a verdict on the termination of contracts for the sale and purchase of 68.01% of ZalK’s shares and the return of this package to state ownership was issued.
According to the NDU, the State Property Fund (SPF) owns 68.0095% of the shares of PJSC ZalK, and Velbay Holding Ltd. (Cyprus, controlled by RusAl, Russia) holds 29.5363% of shares.

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KERNEL CUTS SALES OF SUNFLOWER OIL

Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agrarian groups, in the first quarter of 2021 fiscal year (FY), which began in July 2020, reduced sales of sunflower oil by 2% compared to the same period last FY, to 296,240 tonnes.
According to a report on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Monday, bottled sunflower oil sales in the specified period constituted 11.5% of total sales (in the same period last FY – 8.4%).
In July-September of this year, the holding’s oil extraction plants processed 662,610 tonnes of oilseeds, which is 5% more than in the first quarter of FY2020. The company said that this is – the largest ever volume in the first quarter of the financial year.
According to the report, the volume of grain exports from Ukraine in the first quarter of FY2021 increased by 31%, to 2.13 million tonnes, of which 1.9 million tonnes originated from external suppliers, and the remaining volumes being produced by company’s farming division.
Export terminals throughput volume in Ukraine increased by 56%, to 1.87 million tonnes. As explained in the company, this was driven by incremental transshipment volume on Company’s new grain export terminal in the port of Chornomorsk. The company’s silo in-take volume decreased by 36%, to 1.25 million tonnes, reflecting a crop size reduction in company’s farming business and a delayed harvesting campaign this season.
As of October 25, 2019, Kernel has threshed 43.7% corn, 98% sunflower and 100% wheat.
The agricultural holding intends to harvest corn from 254,800 hectares (10% more than a year earlier), sunflower from 148,200 hectares (9% more), wheat from 72,300 hectares (26% less), and other crops from 23,100 hectares (52% less). The company has a total of 498,400 tonnes of crop acreage, which is 3% less than in FY2020, the agricultural holding said.

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