Business news from Ukraine

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BORYSPIL INTENDS TO BOOST PASSENGER FLOW BY 19%

State-owned enterprise (SOE) Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv), the largest airport of the country, plans to service 12.55 million passengers in 2018, which is 19% more than in 2017, when 10.555 million people were serviced. This is outlined in a financial plan of the airport approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on April 11 and a copy of which has been sent to Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the document, this year the airport seeks to boost passenger flow on international routes by 16.8%, to 11.31 million and on domestic routes – by 42.7%, to 1.24 million people.
“The decrease in the airport fees in the Boryspil airport since June 2017 and the introduction of a program to stimulate growth in volumes by the number of carriers allow us to maintain high growth rates of passenger traffic,” the airport said in an explanatory note to its financial plan.
In 2018, the Boryspil airport plans to serve 101,466 flights, which is 16% more than in 2017. The number of international flights is planned at 89,363 (17.6% more), domestic – 12,103 (5.4% more).

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GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL PRICES IN UKRAINE SLOWS DOWN TO 0.3% IN MARCH

Prices in the industry of Ukraine in March 2018 increased by 0.3%, while in February their growth was 1.2%, in January 4.4%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
In annual terms, in March this year the growth of producers’ prices slowed to 15.9% from 19.6% in February and 22% in January.
The main reason is the sharp decline in prices of metal ores (10.7% down).
Since early 2018, industrial prices in Ukraine grew by 5.9%.
Prices in mining and quarrying in March fell by 4.8%, in particular in mining of metal ores by 10.7%, crude oil and natural gas by 1.1%.
In processing industry prices went up by 0.2%, in particular, in production of rubber and plastic goods, other non-metal mineral goods – by 1.8%, bread production and beverages by 1.6%, vehicle, trailers and semitrailers, other vehicles production, production of PCs, electronic and optic goods – by 1.6%, production of key pharmaceutical products and medications – by 1.5%.
Prices in production of sugar fell by 7.5%, coke and petroleum products output – by 3.7% and in intra-branch consumption by 1.5%.
Tariffs in the supply of electricity, gas and air conditioning increased 3.1%.

CYGNET PLANS TO INVEST $700,000 IN UPGRADE OF SUGAR REFINERY IN 2018

Cygnet agricultural company plans to invest $700,000 in reconstruction and modernization of its sugar refinery in Zhytomyr region in 2018.
According to a posting on the company’s website, the works are intended to increase efficiency of the sugar refinery to 2,750 tonnes a day, reduce gas, limestone, coal, raw materials consumption and boost the quality of finished products.
Overhauls and current repair would start in the first half of April.
The company also said that Cygnet sowed 59% of areas with corn, 14% with soybeans, 14% with sugar beets and 10% with winter wheat.
As reported, Cygnet in 2017 invested $2.7 million in the modernization of a sugar factory in Zhytomyr region.
The company cultivates 25,000 hectares in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions, where it grows corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar beets.
Cygnet also has a dairy business line (about 700 cows), its products are sold to local processors, and the elevator capacity is 60,000 tonnes.

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MHP RECEIVES APPLICATIONS TO BUY 84% OF 2020 EUROBONDS

Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) agroholding after a tender offer to buy notes due on April 2, 2020 received applications for the securities worth $416.183 million, the company reported on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Monday.
According to the report, currently the company has outstanding 2020 notes in aggregate principal amount of $495.6 million.
MHP said that following the early tender deadline the notes in aggregate principal amount of $409.783 million were tendered. On or before the expiration deadline the notes in aggregate principal amount of $6.4 million were tendered.
On or about 10 April 2018, on the terms and subject to the conditions in the tender offer memorandum, noteholders who validly tendered following the early tender deadline and on or before the expiration deadline will be paid the tender offer consideration of $1,065 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount plus the accrued interest amount.
The aggregate principal amount of Notes outstanding following completion of the tender offer is $79.417 million.

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UKRAINE, TURKEY MAKE PROGRESS IN TALKS ON FREE TRADE ZONE

Ukraine and Turkey have made progress in negotiations on a free trade zone (FTA), agreeing to include agricultural products in the agreement along with the industrial ones, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said.
“Negotiations are ongoing. That is why, since everything has not been agreed yet, I cannot disclose anything. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for May. It is quite progressive that we have agreed with Turkey to include industrial and agricultural goods in the Agreement,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Mykolska, at the beginning of the negotiation process, it was exclusively about industrial goods in the context of the FTA.
“This is a good progress,” she said.
At the same time, she noted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from the FTA of Ukraine and Israel, negotiations on which have recently completed.
“Even the fact of the completion of the negotiation process will stimulate the business to take a closer look at the Israeli market, especially the small and medium ones, since this market is more inclined to work with SMEs. In addition, Ukrainian products are well-known in this country due to fairly large Ukrainian Diaspora,” she said.

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