Grigeo, one of the leading cardboard and wood board manufacturers in the Baltic states, which owns the Ukrainian corrugated packaging manufacturer PJSC Mena Paсk (Mena, Chernihiv region), has attracted EUR30 million of investments from INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund to develop cardboard business, according to a press release from Grigeo.
The corresponding agreement was signed on June 10 by Grigeo AB, which controls the cardboard business of the group, and BSGF Salvus, a subsidiary of INVL Baltic, and provides for phased investments of up to EUR30 million in Grigeo investicijų valdymas (a 100% subsidiary of Grigeo AB) with the acquisition of 49.99% of its shares. The transaction must be completed after the fulfillment of the contractual conditions, subject to approval by the Competition Council.
In addition to Ukraine’s Mena Pack, Grigeo Group includes enterprises in Lithuania and Latvia, namely Grigeo Klaipeda (owns 100% of Mena Pack) and Grigeo Recycling. According to the group’s plans, taking into account the growth in demand for cardboard and products from it, it intends to triple the production capacity in five years.
Mena Pack, which has been operating in the corrugated packaging market for over 30 years, produces corrugated packaging made of three-layer corrugated cardboard for tobacco, food and construction industries.
The public union “All-Ukrainian Platform of Donbas” and Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivschyna party have signed a memorandum of cooperation in lawmaking in the newly elected parliament: human rights activists and MPs committed themselves to jointly lobby bills to help solve the problems of Donbas residents and displaced people. The signing of the memorandum took place on June 20, 2019 on the World Refugee Day. The document provides for the development and consolidation of the state strategy of assistance to the residents of Donbas, the gradual implementation of a comprehensive policy to restore peace and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
“The aggressive attitude towards people, inattention, and detachment from problems is unacceptable. The new government is obliged to view it in a completely different way and take real steps to help all its citizens,” Tymoshenko believes.
“The pressing issues for Ukrainians from Donbas are: the lack of permanent housing, restrictions in the passing of the contact line, legislative gaps in the issuing of identity documents, non-payment of pensions,” head of the All-Ukrainian Platform of Donbas Hennadiy Borysychiv said.
The parties agreed on the need to create an international fund for the restoration and development of Donbas, where donor funds will be used exclusively for the intended purposes.
“Over the past five years, international donors have provided the Ukrainian authorities with about $1 billion in assistance to support the affected residents of Donbas and damaged infrastructure. However, they were inefficient: some money was stolen, and some were simply redistributed to other state needs, which is a crime against affected people. In addition, it undermines the credibility of donor states to Ukraine,” Borysychiv said.
The All-Ukrainian Platform of Donbas is a public union that united organizations and coalitions of internally displaced persons in order to protect and restore their rights.
ALL-UKRAINIAN PLATFORM OF DONBAS, BORYSYCHIV, IDPS, TYMOSHENKO'S
The transport companies of Ukraine in January-May 2019 reduced passenger traffic by 5.9% compared with January-April 2018, to 1.796 billion people, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to its data, passenger turnover over the period amounted to 42 billion passenger-kilometers, which is 4.3% more than a year ago.
According to the State Statistics Service, in January-May 2019, 63.1 million passengers were carried by rail (including the city train), which is 0.1% less than in January-May 2018, and 761.8 million passengers by road (5.6% less).
Airlines raised passenger traffic by 10.6%, to 4.6 million people.
In addition, according to the State Statistics Service, in January-May 2019 some 262.5 million passengers used trams (a decrease of 9.6% compared with January-May 2018), subways carried 298.6 million (a decrease of 1.2%), while trolleybuses 405.7 million (a fall of 8.4%).
Transportation of passengers by water transport grew by 3.3%, to 0.1 million.
According to the State Statistics Service, the data is provided excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as part of temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Pelidona Services Limited (Cyprus) from Smart-Holding of Ukrainian MP and businessman Vadim Novinsky has increased its stake in Regal Petroleum Plc with assets in Ukraine from 54% to 82.65%, and companies from the EastOne Group of Ukrainian businessman Victor Pinchuk sold the shares to the Smart-Holding’s company.
“A stake in the amount of 91.868 million shares was bought out from the major shareholder of Regal Petroleum Plc – Kylestone Limited – as part of the implementation of Smart-Holding’s fossil fuel production business development strategy. Pelidona Services Limited does not intend to continue the further buyout of shares in the market,” Smart-Holding said in a press release of on Friday.
“We confirm the fact of the deal to sell Regal Petroleum’s shares. The transaction was carried out as part of the portfolio strategy of the EastOne Group. We remain in the oil and gas sector of Ukraine, continue focusing on the development of assets under the group’s mandate, and exploring new opportunities,” EastOne, which includes Geo Alliance Group, a large gas and condensate producer in Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the information on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) website, on the AIM platform where Regal Petroleum shares are traded, their quotations on June 20 (closure) were 39.95 pence. At that price the transaction could be valued at GBP 36.7 million (about $46.6 million).
“The results of the transaction will not affect the corporate governance of Regal Petroleum and its status as a public company. No changes are planned for the board of directors,” Smart Holding said in the press release.
The holding said that Regal Petroleum shows good performance and will continue being the basis of gas production, and its development strategy provides for both organic business growth by increasing production at existing fields and the acquisition of new assets.
“Smart-Holding is confident that deeper integration with public platforms for placement of shares is a tool for increasing capitalization, this will give gas production businesses greater stability and will open additional opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation with new institutional investors,” Smart-Holding said.
In a stock exchange report on Friday, the majority shareholder said that the long-term development and growth of Regal Petroleum at AIM may also include expanding the shareholder base in the future.
Poland is ready to launch a gas pipeline with a transmission capacity of 2 billion cubic meters, which will connect the Polish gas transmission system (GTS) with the Ukrainian one in Hermanowice (Poland), the zn.ua (Mirror Weekly) ezine reported on Thursday.
“We are ready to launch the gas pipeline, if necessary, which will connect the Polish system with the Ukrainian one in Hermanowice. Its capacity is 2 billion cubic meters. This is not much, but when Ukrainians need urgent help, we are ready to provide it,” the publication said, quoting a representative of the Polish government for the strategic energy infrastructure Piotr Naimski.
He also said that Poland is waiting for a decision from the Ukrainian side.
The National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine has published a plan for development of commodity markets in Ukraine, including the gas and power markets, based on the concept of energy hubs. The press service of the commission reported that the plan was developed with participation of an international group of experts in line with the standards of the EU Energy Community. The commission said that the implementation of current reforms, in particular the gas market and the electricity market, does not take place in an integrated manner. It does not provide for the creation of a full-fledged payment system, such important aspects as ensuring pricing on competitive principles, requirements for the organization of trade, the activities of stock exchanges, which causes significant risks of non-payment and pose a threat to financial stability, according to the commission.
One of the main prerequisites for successful reform is the distribution of responsibilities between regulators – core (regulating the conditions and rules for the physical movement of goods) and financial (financial aspects of trading and conditions for using financial tools).
“We do not offer another energy reform. We have developed a mechanism for implementing previous reforms: the gas market, the electricity market. Reforms that started with good intentions, but without taking into account the need to develop the accompanying financial infrastructure, were implemented distortedly: one is not completed, the second is proposed to be delayed both by the regulators and market players, because it threatens to collapse the system. This happens because the markets do not function as intended. They still need administrative “manual control,” because it does not ensure compliance with its primary function – to establish a balance between buyers and vendors, they are not transparent, competitive,” Head of the commission Tymur Khromaev said.
Khromaev said that the model developed by the commission will make it possible to balance the commodity markets, ensure the establishment of fair prices, and increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the country’s economy.
In particular, the commission’s plan implies amending the law on securities and the stock market to expand trading tools on the stock exchange, which will open up the segments of energy products in accordance with the law.
