The mobile communications operator lifecell in 2018 saw UAH 1.301 billion in net loss, which is 2.58 times more than in 2017 (the loss of UAH 503.6 million), according to financial statements of its parent company Turkcell (Turkey) posted on its official website.
Revenue of the operator grew by 8.06%, to UAH 5.269 billion.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 8.2%, to UAH 2.762 billion, and EBITDA margin increased 25.2 percentage points, to 52.4%.
Capital investment of the operator in 2018 tripled, to UAH 4.032 billion, while in 2017 the operator invested UAH 1.33 billion.
The active subscribers’ base last year narrowed by 8.8%, to 7.3 million clients, and total number of subscribers in the network of the operator decreased 10.8%, to 9.9 million. Average revenue per user (ARPU) grew by 26.6%, to UAH 42.80, and ARPU of the active clients’ base rose by 20.1%, to UAH 57.30.
The number of minutes used by subscribers for voice data transfer grew by 12% in 2018, to 144.9 minutes.
Saturation of smartphones in the lifecell network as of late Q4 2018 reached 75.9%.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the net loss of lifecell increased 4.07 times and amounted to UAH 730.1 million, while revenue grew by 11.6% to UAH 1.417 billion.
EBITDA increased by 3.37 times, to UAH 1.084 billion, while EBITDA margin rose by 50.4 percentage points, to 76.5%.
Capital investments in the last quarter of 2018 amounted to UAH 933.3 million, which is 2.25 times more than in the same period of 2017.
The Turkish company said that EBITDA growth was thanks to effective cost control measures, as well as the positive impact of the new IFRS standards.
At the same time, the company continues saying that the outflow of the subscriber base is mainly due to the general trend of reducing the use of SIM-cards in the country.
In addition, the operator reported on the increase in the number of active 4.5G Internet users (lifecell) for three months to 33% of the total number of mobile data users, and also that lifecell was the first in the Ukrainian market to deploy the NB-IoT network for smart devices.
As reported, in 2018, lifecell saw net loss of UAH 503.6 million compared to UAH 928.3 million of net profit in 2016, while the operator’s EBITDA in 2017 decreased by 2.2%, to UAH 1.326 billion.
Lifecell is the third largest mobile operator in Ukraine.
Kyiv is interested in developing defense cooperation with Cairo and offers Egypt cooperation in modernizing its air defense system.
The press service of the Ukroboronprom state concern reported on Thursday that cooperation plans were discussed by Ukroboronprom Head Pavlo Bukin and Director for Production of the National Organization for Military Production (NOMP) of the Egypt’s Ministry of Military Production Hassan Ahmed Abdel-Mageed at the IDEX 2019 international defence exhibition held in Abu Dhabi (the UAE).
“In accordance with the agreement, the Ukrainian side will provide proposals for the modernization of anti-aircraft missile systems and other air defense systems used by the Egyptian Armed Forces. Comprehensive modernization may include a complete replacement of the outdated element base with modern solid-state elements: along with the modernization of anti-aircraft missiles, this will allow increasing the range of target detection and destruction by several times,” the concern said.
According to the press service, the prospects for cooperation in the ammunition sphere were also discussed at the meeting.
“Currently, the parties are considering a project to establish a joint production of precision and conventional ammunition for artillery systems of various calibers,” the concern said.
De Novo IT company has launched a new HANA Cloud platform and announced that the company has become the SAP-certified provider of cloud and infrastructure operations (Germany), the company has reported on its Facebook page.
The company said that 297 SAP-certified providers of outsourcing and cloud services are operating in the world. It was the first company in Ukraine certified by SAP.
“HANA Cloud allows owners of information systems based on SAP to achieve significant savings on computer equipment and its operation, while fully complying with the recommendations and requirements of SAP and reserving the right to technical support from it,” De Novo said.
To confirm the compliance of HANA Cloud with the requirements of the software provider, De Novo was audited by SAP, which tested: the architecture of the cloud platform, the entire stack of operating processes and technical support for users, the operator’s internal information systems, and the state and level of security datacenter, in which the HANA Cloud operates.
De Novo is a national cloud service and data center provider.
Shareholders in De Novo are KM Core, Intel Capital and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
After the renewed interest of developers in the implementation of office projects in Kyiv, the volume of office space to be commissioned in 2020-2021 is 406,000 square meters, Ihor Zabolotsky, an expert of Colliers International (Ukraine) in the field of commercial real estate, has said. “Developers have become very active. The volume of new supply for 2020–2021 will be about 400,000 square meters. There is, of course, a certain discount that some facilities will not be put into operation on time. But in general, we see a huge amount of new projects,” the expert said at the Open Mind conference held in Kyiv last week.
He explained this situation has arisen due to a very low rate of commissioning new projects in the last five years, as a result of which the vacancy in the market in 2018 fell to 6.5% and still continues declining.
“In 2019-2020, the vacancy will continue falling, i.e. we will be in the lessor’s market. Many corporate tenants have already experienced this in during negotiations both with the current lessors and during the move. Accordingly, rental rates will increase,” he said.
He noted that until 2014 the annual supply in the Kyiv office market was 130,000-150,000 square meters, then decreased by three times.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has found manifestations of Ukrainian corruption in 65 countries, the press service of the NABU has reported. “Ukrainian corruption is traced in 65 countries. Most often, detectives have to seek help from law enforcement officials in Latvia, Cyprus, the U.K., Germany and Switzerland. For its part, the National Bureau also tries to respond promptly to requests received from foreign colleagues: 90% of them were satisfied,” the NABU said in a statement.
The NABU sent about 500 requests for international legal assistance to the competent authorities of other states. Of these, 118 were only in the second half of 2018, of which 52 were answered. The purpose of requests is to find out the circumstances of committing corruption offenses, as a result of which the interests of Ukraine were damaged.
NABU explained the need for international communication by the fact that the majority of corruption schemes provide for the participation of companies registered abroad. Typically, these companies play the role of intermediaries which leave the lion’s share of revenues of state-owned companies. In the future, the organizers of the schemes legalize these funds and spend them for their own needs, including for financing political projects.
Examples of criminal proceedings in the NABU, the investigation of which was led by detectives abroad, are: the embezzlement of UAH 247 million at state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, causing a loss of $60.5 million to PJSC State Food and Grain Corporation. The NABU and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) estimated that, due to corruption involving foreign contractors, the state interests were damaged in the amount of about UAH 7 billion.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
