Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy has said that first road concession road projects could be launched next year.
‘I won’t say this year, since this should be approached very carefully. But next year it is likely that we will launch the first concession roads. However, we are already talking to potential concessionaires. There are companies that have experience in managing concession roads in Europe, they apply, they are ready to initiate some small pilot projects with us in order to understand the volumes of traffic,” the minister said.
He said that the first possible concession projects could be for sections of the Kyiv-Bila Tserkva, Lviv-Krakovets roads, as well as part of the Kyiv’s orbital road.
Krykliy also noted the need to maintain the requirement on the mandatory duplication of the toll road as its free alternative.
According to the minister, earlier the Infrastructure Ministry’s team planned to work with concession projects in the road industry through the adoption of a bill on road concessions. “But the general concession law has already been worked out by both relevant committees and MPs, which covers much more – not only roads, but also other infrastructure projects. We need to follow – it will be placed on the agenda [for voting by the Verkhovna Rada] in the coming weeks,” Krykliy said.
He also said that the Infrastructure Ministry has a lot of infrastructure concession projects and the ministry team is looking forward to the adoption of a profile bill as soon as possible.
INTEGRITES successfully represented interests of the Ukrainian state enterprise “Ukrkhimtransamiak”, one of the world major operators of ammonia pipeline, in arbitral proceedings against a Russian chemical giant Togliattiazot with over USD 190 mln at stake.
This case stemming from the long-term contract for ammonia transit through the territory of Ukraine was referred to arbitration under the Rules of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICAC) in 2017. INTEGRITES’ client initiated these arbitral proceedings, while Togliattiazot filed several cross-claims. Both parties sought revision of the contractual tariff for ammonia transit through the Ukrainian part of the pipeline “Togliatti – Odessa”.
The negative outcome of the dispute could have affected the global ammonia market, because the ammonia pipeline has no market equivalent and remains the major means of transportation of ammonia produced and exported by Togliattiazot (i.e. about 11% of global ammonia exports).
INTEGRITES secured an unprecedented award revising the transit tariff sought by its client. They also helped the client defeat all cross-claims with economic effect exceeding USD 180 mln.
Supervised by partner and Head of International Arbitration Olena Perepelynska, the project team included senior associate Krystyna Khripkova and associate Anastasiia Iliashenko. Throughout the proceeding INTEGRITES team worked closely with the legal department and administration of “Ukrkhimtransamiak”.
“The case proved to be challenging and requiring analysis and application of not only the Civil and Commercial Codes of Ukraine, but of many provisions of the Tax Code of Ukraine, CIS customs convention, Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and many other Ukrainian laws and international treaties. Both the nature and complexity of the case make it unique among those considered by the ICAC”, – INTEGRITES partner Olena Perepelynska commented.
Deposit Guarantee Fund will hold a repeated auction on September 24 to sell liabilities on credit agreements of Delta Bank on the Debt Exchange, Inc. (DebtX, Delaware) increasing the starting price up to UAH 4.98 billion (5.7 times).
Oil and fat complex in Illichivsk and infrastructure in the Chornomorsk seaport are the parts of poll of assets of Delta bank, the fund reported on its website.
“The bids will run under the Dutch scheme [on lowering price],” the Deposit Fund said.
The asset pool includes legal claims (15 items), property rights under credit agreements (seven items) and receivables.
On July 9, the executive directorate of the Deposit Guarantee Fund annulled the results of an open auction to sell liabilities on credit agreements of Delta Bank with the book value of UAH 4.85 billion ($182 million) on the Debt Exchange, Inc. (DebtX, Delaware) for UAH 182.5 million with the starting price of UAH 868.8 million, taking into account decision of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) made on July 8, which annulled the results of the auction.
The NBU on July 8 revoked its decision made on April 9, 2019 approving the sale of the oil and fat complex in Illichivsk and infrastructure in the Chornomorsk seaport used as collateral for credits issued by Delta Bank over possible abuse by the buyer – Sky financial company, the beneficiary of which is the co-owner of Kernel Andriy Verevsky.
The price of the same assets at a similar auction held March 6 of this year amounted to UAH 906.2 million with the same buyer, but the district administrative court locked the deal under the suit of a company, which did not participate in the bidding.
According to the NBU, the auction was held with the presence of circumstances and possible manipulations on the part of the buyer, which could affect the outcome of the auction and the sale of the property at a lower price. According to the NBU, for three months the assets could not depreciate several times.
Ukrainian low-cost SkyUp Airlines will launch flights to Tel Aviv (Israel) from Lviv and Zaporizhia from November 28, 2019.
As the company’s press service said on Tuesday, Lviv Tel Aviv flights will be operated twice a week: on Thursdays and Sundays. The cost of a one-way ticket without baggage currently starts from UAH 2,400.
Flights Zaporizhia-Tel Aviv will also be operated on Thursdays and Sundays. The cost of a one-way ticket without baggage currently starts from UAH 2,300.
Exports of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU countries grew by 34.3% in January-July 2019 year-over-year, to $4.1 billion, former acting Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva has said. “The export of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU for the seven months of 2019 increased 34.3% (or $1.04 billion), to $4.1 billion compared to the same period in 2018,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
The main products in the export structure to the EU are cereals – $1.8 billion, vegetable oils – $921.9 million, oilseeds – $385.4 million, bagasse and other food waste – $345.5 million, poultry – $117.3 million, fruits, nuts and zest – $78.6 million.
The share of the Netherlands in the trade between Ukraine and the EU countries was 18%, Spain’s – 13.5%, Poland’s – 13.4%, Germany’s – 11.1%, and Italy’s – 10.6%.
Trofimtseva said that as of September 2, 2019, Ukraine had fully used the EU tariff import quotas for honey, sugar, barley groats and flour, processed starch, preserved tomatoes, grape and apple juices, corn and wheat. The quota was used for butter by 48%, and for processed milk products – by 33.3%.
Kharkiv in August placed three-year E series domestic bonds for UAH 250 million maturing in 2022, Fitch Ratings has reported.
According to the report, the agency assigned the bonds a priority unsecured rating of “B.”
“This is the first tranche of a UAH 1 billion bond to be placed in 2019-2020. Another UAH 250 million tranche is planned for November 2019,” the agency’s report says.
The interest rate is 18% per annum, income is paid quarterly.
According to the decision of Kharkiv City Council of June 19, 2019, bonds worth UAH 1 billion of E, F, G, H series for UAH 250 million each are to be placed within two years.
E series bonds will mature on August 24, 2022, F series on November 23, 2022, G series on February 22, 2023, and H series on May 24, 2023.
“The purpose of the loan is to raise funds to finance the budget deficit for the development of the city of Kharkiv, including the construction and reconstruction of social and cultural facilities, transport infrastructure, roads and engineering facilities,” the decision reads.
