Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ukraine as equity capital as of late 201, was $32.29 billion, which was 2.2%, or $0.69 billion, up on the beginning of the year, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine said. According to the retrospective data, which the authority also announced, the inflow of FDI last year exceeded the figure for 2017, when it amounted $0.38 billion, whereas before this, for three years, FDI fell by a total of $22.47 billion.
In 2018, nonresidents increased investment in Ukraine by $2.87 billion, while disinvesting $0.97 billion, it said. Some $1.22 billion FDI was written off due to the change of the cost and the exchange rate, losses and reclassification.
This is slightly better than in 2017 when residents increased investment in Ukraine by $2.51 billion and disinvested $0.76 billion.
According to previously published data, quarterly inflows of FDI in Ukraine last year were recorded in the first and fourth quarter, $1.15 billion and $0.32 billion respectively, while in the second and third quarters their outflow was recorded – $0.66 billion and $0.12 billion respectively.
The Netherlands was the leader in FDI in 2018 – $951.5 million or more than one third of all investment, followed by Russia and Cyprus – $495.6 million and $477.6 million respectively.
FDI from Austria accounted for $203.7 million, France – $110.9 million, the U.K. – almost $98.7 million, and from Poland – $90.6 million.
Nonresidents invested $1.215 billion in financial and insurance activities, or 42.3% of all FDI, $599.4 million in wholesale and retail trade, $405.3 million in transactions with property, $302.1 million in industry and $119.4 million in IT and telecom.
Intertop Ukraine LLC (Kyiv), founded by MTI Holding, plans to open Ukraine’s first mono-brand store of the U.S. outdoor brand The North Face and eight more stores in the River Shopping trade and entertainment center with a total area of 140,000 square meters being built in Darnytsky district in Kyiv. The press service of River Mall told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that the total area of Intertop Ukraine stores in the facility will be 1,300 square meters.
“Intertop Ukraine opens the first mono-brand store of the legendary U.S. brand The North Face and eight more stores in the River Mall center. Among them are such well-known international brands as Armani Exchange, Napapijri, Marc O’Polo, Ecco, Skechers, Geox, Timberland, as well as the Intertop store for the whole family,” the report says.
The North Face store will become the first mono-brand store in the Intertop Ukraine portfolio in Ukraine. It will present male and female clothes, as well as accessories.
“As of the end of January 2019, the design of the stores is at the completion stage. In the near future, the company is ready to start repair and construction work. The opening of the stores is scheduled simultaneously with the official opening of the River Mall center in the spring of this year,” the press service said.
Intertop Ukraine was founded by the international trading holding MTI, one of the largest distributors of computer and office equipment in Ukraine.
Ukraine on February 28 raised a loan of EUR 529 million from Deutsche Bank under the guarantee of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, the World Bank Group), according to the website of the Ministry of Finance. The funds were received in two tranches: an A tranche in the amount of EUR240 million with maturity in four years and a B tranche in the amount of EUR289 million with a final maturity in ten years (four years and six months after raising the funds, the loan is subject to gradual repayment with certain amounts every half a year).
The second part of the guarantee in the amount of $375 million in the euro equivalent of the total amount of the World Bank guarantees of $750 million was used for the loan.
As reported, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on December 18, 2018 approved the provision of guarantees to Ukraine in the amount of $750 million in support of state policy.
TAS Agro agricultural holding in 2018 increased its land bank by 11.4%, to 83,000 hectares, businessman Sergiy Tigipko has said.
“In 2018, we bought the lease rights for 8,500 hectares of land: 3,500 hectares in Kherson region for irrigation and 5,000 hectares in Chernihiv region. Now we have about 83,000 hectares. And we are also considering two more transactions: for 3,000 and 12,000 hectares. If we agree on conditions, then we will buy them,” he said in an interview with the New Time (Novoye Vremia) magazine.
According to Tigipko, TAS Agro is not actively involved in processing now.
“Working in the bank, we see the profitability of many businesses: how they earn on eggs, poultry, or milk. And nowhere do we see more profitability than just in production of grain,” the businessman said.
TAS Agro cultivates land in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. It is engaged in dairy cattle breeding (up to 5,500 animals), owns six elevators with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes.
ElectraWorks Limited (Gibraltar), operating under the bwin sports betting brand and owned by GVC Holdings PLC in London, has made showman and Servant of the People Party leader Volodymyr Zelensky the odds-on favorite to win the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine.
According to bwin’s website, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko’s odds have dropped from 2.2 to 1 to 2.05 to 1 over the last five days.
Odds for Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko to become president have dropped from 4.75 to 5 to 1.
In fourth place, according to bwin, is Civil Position Party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko, at 21 to 1.
