The Kyivstar mobile communications operator has allowed paying for a subscription to sticker packs in Viber (part of Rakuten Inc.) via own Smart-Money financial service for prepaid subscribers, the companies have said in a joint press release.
“This is the first experience of the collaboration of the messenger and the mobile payment service, which was implemented in Ukraine,” the press service of the mobile operator said.
Users of the Smart Money service will be able to subscribe to all stickers in Viber for UAH 20 per month and access immediately to all collections of stickers, which has more than 500 pictures.
Usually, Viber users pay for each sticker pack separately, but one time at a price of UAH 52-54 per one sticker pack.
The service can be used by Kyivstar prepaid subscribers who have installed the Smart Money application, since payments are made from a mobile account.
“Launching a joint project with Viber is an important step for us. We are confident that such a partnership will help develop a culture of payments with mobile money and thus help citizens of Ukraine to strive for a cashless economy,” Senior Business Development Manager at Kyivstar Olena Suvorova said.
According to Rakuten Viber, Ukrainians make about 4 million calls to Viber every day and send 11 million messages.
“For Viber, this is the first experience of such cooperation in Ukraine,” Senior Director for Business Development in Europe, Africa and Middle East Atanas Raykov said.
Kyivstar also said that today, since the launch of the service in September 2018, 6.4 million transactions has been carried out, and the most popular services were: payment for telecommunication services, national lotteries, online purchases and payment for public transport.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will issue a loan of EUR 20 million (two tranches of EUR 10 million) to Dniprovska agribusiness group, one of the largest poultry producers in Ukraine, for the reconstruction and expansion of the slaughtering house. According to the bank’s website, the total cost of the project is EUR 33.8 million, of which EUR 23.8 million will be invested in 2019-2020, another EUR 10 million in 2020-2021.
According to the EBRD’s website, the project will enable the company to obtain necessary certification for entering the EU market.
As reported, in March 2018 the EBRD issued $5 million to Dniprovska group for the construction of a biogas plant. The total project cost was $5.85 million.
Dniprovska agribusiness group is engaged in poultry farming, plant growing, and processing industrial crops.
British-based IWG Plc, which provides rental services for office space and temporary workplaces, plans to open a nine-storey office space under the Spaces brand in the Maidan Plaza business center (Kyiv). “In 2019, the first center of the global network of creative space for work Spaces will open in Kyiv. The Maidan Plaza business center was chosen as the location. The space of 6,100 square meters for 600 workplaces will occupy nine floors at once. The official opening of the first stage of the premises is scheduled for August,” according to a press release from Spaces in Ukraine.
According to the report, one of the key components of the Spaces concept are also regular events – both business and lifestyle. The goal is not only to provide new opportunities for development, but also inspire the creation of ideas, encourage the use of non-standard approaches in solving daily operational problems, and promote networking.
The Spaces brand was founded in 2006 and is managed by IWG. The Spaces premises are located in 39 countries of the world (including the Netherlands, the United States and Australia) and 150 locations. The format of Spaces offices is designed to promote the active development of business – from entrepreneurs and startups to major corporations.
The network of branches of Ukrainian banks in the second quarter of 2019 decreased by 2.1%, or 180 offices, to 8,269, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has reported. According to its data, the leaders in the number of closed branches in April-June of this year were Oschadbank with 102 offices, Prominvestbank with 31 offices, and PrivatBank with 26 branches.
For state-owned Oschadbank or PrivatBank this accounted for 3.9% and 1.3% of the entire network, while for Prominvestbank, controlled by Russia’s VEB, according to the quarterly results, the chain decreased by 2.3 times, to 24 branches.
In addition, the number of Ukrsotsbank branches fell by 23, this was due to its merger with Alfa-Bank, the number of branches of which increased by ten over the quarter. In total, their network comprised 270 branches in the middle of this year.
Among the banks that increased the number of branches in April-June, the leader is FUIB, which extended its network by six new outlets.
The transfer of Ukrsotsbank’s business to Alfa-Bank (both based in Kyiv) has completed in fact: Ukrsotsbank has around 6% of clients of the number of clients as of early 2017 left on its balance sheet, and the legal merger is expected this autumn, General Manager of the board of the Alfa-Bank banking group, Board Chairman of Ukrsotsbank Ivan Svitek has said. “The merger has actually ended, as all the time we focused not on a legal merger, but on transferring the active business of Ukrsotsbank to the platform of Alfa-Bank Ukraine,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that only 11,000 of these 6% of clients are active.
Svitek recalled that in 2018, 80% of customers and 90% of balances were transferred from Ukrsotsbank, and the more complex issue of a unified IT system was completed a few weeks ago.
“At Ukrsotsbank, we have migrated more than 8 million accounts to Alfa – both opened and closed, and closed almost 90% of all IT systems and servers, including disconnection of all mobile applications and Internet banking from the system. We have already closed all branches of Ukrsotsbank and almost all of its employees were transferred to Alfa Bank. Only cash collection and one branch of Ukrsotsbank remained,” the head of the banking group said, describing the current situation.
He said that the migration of up to 90% of clients is a very high figure for the merger of banks.
“For us in this process, quality was more important than quantity. Therefore, we are pleased with the result,” Svitek said.
According to him, the largest portfolio that remained on the Ukrsotsbank’s platforme is a portfolio of bad loans, but debtors of the bank should not hope for relief after joining Alfa-Bank.
“Therefore, the legal merger de facto will not affect either the clients or the creditors of Ukrsotsbank,” Svitek said.
He said that the issue of the legal merger is still open and will be discussed at a meeting of the supervisory board in the coming weeks. The head of the group predicted that legally the merger will occur this autumn.
Asked about the brand of the merged bank, Svitek said that there is still no final decision on this matter. He said that new Strategic Marketing Director Natalia Palina, who earlier worked for Jacobs Douwe Egberts and has extensive experience in FMCG, recently joined the team. Until the end of September, she is conducting another in-depth study, the results of which will again weigh all the pros and cons of the decision to change the brand,” the head of the banking group said.
“…it would be very easy to make a decision if Alfa-Bank’s brand lost its value and strength, but this is definitely not the case. Now, only the coming legal merger is actually pushing us to rebranding. Therefore, we are weighing this step again and again,” Svitek said.
He said that rebranding is a very serious procedure and a major stress for the company, so the task is to make the right decision.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Danyliuk has said that he is interested in the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine.
“I won’t lie that I am interested,” Danyliuk said in an interview with TSN.Tyzhden, answering the question whether he is interested in the position of the head of the Ukrainian government in the future.
In turn, the journalist noted that Dmytro Razumkov, the leader of the Servant of the People Party, could claim the post of prime minister.
“There are many of those who want it. But that is not the point,” answered the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
