PJSC National Depository of Ukraine, trader Univer Capital LLC, custodian Management Treasure Trading Limited LLC and five more asset management companies (AMCs) have been identified as critical for the functioning of the economy and ensuring life support in a special period, which increases their ability to armor employees from mobilization.
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) made the relevant decisions and published them on its website, establishing that these companies meet the requirements previously defined by the Commission.
In particular, it is about AMC-APF Apinvest, AMC Univer Management, AMC Diamant Invest Management, AMC Klever Capital and AMC Aktiv (all – LLC).
Earlier, in February, BTS Broker LLC, Investment Capital of Ukraine (ICU) LLC, Dragon Capital JV LLC and First Global Initiative Securities Trader (FGI) LLC also received such status from the NCSSM
In addition, a similar decision was made in respect of the state institution “Agency for Development of Stock Market Infrastructure” as the only company in the market, which is still engaged in the provision of information services.
As reported, the list of criteria for classifying professional market participants as important for the market NCSSM approved the decision № 24 of January 10 this year. According to it, investment firms that have carried out at their own expense or at the expense of clients purchase and sale transactions of government bonds in 2023 in the amount of UAH 100 million and asset management companies (AMCs), whose funds invested in government bonds in 2023 from UAH 30 million, may receive the status of critical and additional opportunities to book their employees from mobilization.
Alternatively, AMCs can make loans of UAH 100 million or more to defense-related entities in 2023 by the funds it manages.
The Commission also recognizes as important for the market property managers for financing construction projects or real estate transactions, if their activities are related to the construction of housing for the needs of the Ministry of Defense or war veterans and their families (subject to confirmation by the relevant state body).
In addition, the list of important professional participants that ensure the formation and functioning of the securities depository system, the formation and functioning of organized capital markets or organized commodity markets will be included in the list of important ones.
An enterprise will also be defined as important for the market if it provides clearing and settlements (organization of settlements) on completed transactions in financial instruments or products or provides functioning of the non-state pension provision system.
Finally, enterprises that are issuers participating in the fulfillment of military orders (subject to confirmation of the relevant state body) are defined as important.
ECONOMY, life activity reservation from mobilization, Management Trezhe Trading Limited, National Depository of Ukraine, Univer Capital
Despite problems with finding workers, rising prices of raw materials and physical threats, Ukrainian businesses are optimistic about the future, 44% of surveyed enterprises are ready to invest in their development or recovery, these are the results of the February New Monthly Enterprises Survey (#NRES) of the Institute for Economic and Policy Research (IEP).
“Businesses are quite optimistic about investment given that a full-scale war is ongoing. For example, 42% of businesses believe that now is more or less a favorable time to invest in equipment. For comparison, at the beginning of 2015, when the ATO was in an active phase, the share of such enterprises amounted to only 14%”, – commented the results of the study, Eugene Angel, a senior researcher at the IEI.
The IEI also pointed out that business is gradually coming out of the state of complete uncertainty and begins to make plans for the future: in February 2024, only about 15% of business owners and managers could not give an answer about their business plans for the next six months, while a year ago there were about 40% of them.
At the same time, the level of uncertainty in the perspective of two years is still quite high – about 50% of respondents.
“A significant decrease in the number of those who find it difficult to make plans for the next six months indicates that optimism is returning to Ukrainian businesses. Moreover, the share of enterprises operating at 100% capacity is gradually increasing: in February 2023 there were 6% of such enterprises, now there are already 15%. But, of course, it is difficult for businessmen to make plans for the long term (2 years) in the conditions of war”, – said Oksana Kuzyakiv, Executive Director of IEI.
According to the published data, for the second month in a row the Business Activity Recovery Index (BAI) decreased – by almost 10 p.p. – From 0.43 to 0.34. As for its components, the share of enterprises that reported that their business activity was better than in the previous year decreased from 56.0% in January to 44.8% in February, nothing changed for 44.0% (30.9% in January), the share of those for whom the situation was worse than a year ago remained without significant changes for several months in a row (13.1% in January and 11.2% in February).
According to the survey, the main obstacles to investment are economic uncertainty, political instability and insufficient corporate profits.
As for the obstacles to doing business, February 2024 saw some changes in the list of obstacles: the assessment of rising prices for raw materials and commodities rose from 46% to 49%, and labor shortages rose from 41% to 46%, which respectively moved them to the 1st and 2nd places.
At the same time, the obstacle “not safe to work” dropped from 1st to 3rd place, although its value decreased slightly from 46% to 45%.
Estimates of power outages dropped from 26% to 24%, which is only the 7th most important obstacle, while corruption and pressure from law enforcement agencies ranked even lower in the survey.
In February, compared to January, the share of enterprises operating at full capacity slightly increased – from 13% to 15%, while the share of non-operating enterprises remains unchanged for half a year and amounts to 2% of respondents.
The survey emphasizes that the share of positive assessments of the government’s policy to support business is 8% and has remained unchanged for more than half a year, while 55% (58% in January) assess it neutrally, and 18% negatively (16% a month earlier).
IEI specialists also recorded a slight decrease in problems with finding labor: qualified workers are difficult to find for 31% of surveyed entrepreneurs (32.4% in January), and unskilled workers – for 26.5% of respondents (27.4% a month earlier).
The monthly IEI survey in February involved 542 Ukrainian enterprises located in 21 out of 27 regions of Ukraine. The field stage of the 22nd wave of the survey lasted from February 19 to February 29, 2024.
DEVELOPMENT, INVESTMENT, New Monthly Enterprises Survey, NRES, RECOVERY, UKRAINIAN BUSINESS
Net sale of dollars by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) rose from $133.7m, the lowest value in the last 11 months, to $262.6m this week, the regulator’s data show.
According to them, the sale of currency increased from $156.8 million to $263.0 million, while the purchase fell back to almost zero, although the National Bank managed to buy more than $50 million on the market in the previous two weeks after a long break.
The official hryvnia exchange rate weakened by almost 66 kop. – From 38.1410 UAH/$1 to $38.7998 UAH/$1 – the lowest level in the history of the national currency. At the same time, market participants note that the decline occurred with a relatively small volume of trading.
On the cash market, the hryvnia exchange rate followed the interbank rate, but with a smaller amplitude: a strong weakening in the first three days and relative stabilization at the end of the week. As a result, during the week it decreased by about 33 kop. – from UAH 38.53/$1 to UAH 38.86/$1. At the same time, according to the NBU, despite the weakening of the exchange rate in the first half of the week, the negative balance between the volume of foreign currency purchases and sales by the population decreased during these days: from $28.6 mln on Monday to $10.3 mln on Wednesday
At a press conference on March 14, representatives of the National Bank said that by the end of April they expect external financing in the amount of $10bn or more, which will allow to restore reserves, while before that Ukraine had received only $1.2bn since the beginning of the year.
At the same time, the NBU noted that such non-rhythmic external financing will not lead to any shocks on the currency market.
As reported, at the end of February, the NBU’s net sales fell to $1.50 billion from $2.53 billion in January, $3.55 billion in December and $2.45 billion in November.
However, in February, external support amounted to only about $0.8bn, so international reserves fell by 3.8% or $1.47bn to $37.05bn after falling by 4.9% or UAH $1.98bn in January.
The National Bank in January lowered its forecast for Ukraine’s international reserves at the end of 2024 to $40.4 billion from $44.7 billion.
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January 2024 decreased by 11.7% compared to the same month in 2023 – to $1.678 billion from $1.9 billion, the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) said on Friday. According to its data, exports of goods from Ukraine in January 2024 compared to January 2023 increased by 8.2% to $3.4 billion, while imports increased by 0.7% to $5.078 billion.
The State Statistics Committee specified that in January-2024 compared to December-2023 seasonally adjusted exports increased by 7.4% to $3.47 billion, while imports remained virtually unchanged at $5.536 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in January-2024 was negative at $2.066 billion, while December-2023 also recorded a negative balance of $2.304 billion.
The coefficient of export coverage of imports in January 2024 amounted to 0.67 (in January 2023 – 0.62).
State Statistics specified that foreign trade operations were conducted with partners from 191 countries. Analytical Center Experts Club presented a video analysis of the main trends in the economy of Ukraine and the world – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=vN_Jp0fh8u1xN_U2.
The former head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, Serhiy Haidai, has been appointed head of the Mukachevo District State Administration in Zakarpattia Oblast.
The corresponding decree of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy No. 30/2024-rp of March 15 was published on the website of the head of state.
Previously, this position was held by Edgar Tokar, who was dismissed.
Haidai was the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration from October 2019 to March 2023.
The Falcon 9 launch vehicle on Saturday successfully put into orbit another batch of 23 mini-satellites to replenish the orbital constellation of the Starlink system’s global Internet coverage network, developer SpaceX said.
“The launch of 23 Starlink satellites has been confirmed,” the statement said.
The rocket was launched from Launch Complex 39A of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday at 20:21 US East Coast time (Saturday at 02:21 Kiev time). About an hour later, the satellites were put into orbit.
Since May 2019, SpaceX has already launched more than 6 thousand such satellites under the Starlink project. Some of them failed or went out of orbit. More than 5.6 thousand vehicles are in orbit in working condition.
During the launch, the first reusable stage of the launch vehicle, which was used for the 19th time, after separation made a controlled vertical landing on the offshore drone platform A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was located in the Atlantic.
