President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine has signed the law on ratification of a memorandum of mutual understanding between Ukraine and the European Union on the allocation to Ukraine of macrofinancial assistance from the European Union to the tune of EUR 1 billion, the presidential website said. By implementing the memorandum, Ukraine will be able to receive additional funding from the EU to the tune of EUR 1 billion to be used for purposes stated in the national budget.
In order to receive each of the two tranches of the EU’s financial assistance to the tune of EUR 500 million each, Ukraine must meet certain conditions that have been agreed upon by the parties in such areas as tax and customs policy, fighting corrupting, small-scale privatization, management of state-run enterprises, corporate management in state-owned banks and banking supervision, and further reforms in power industry, health care, and social care.
As was earlier reported, the Verkhovna Rada ratified the memorandum on November 8, 2018.
The agreements were signed in Kyiv on September 14, 2018, following President Poroshenko’s earlier agreements with leaders of EU institutions as a result of the East Partnership Summit that took place in Brussels on November 23, 2017, and the 20th Ukraine-the EU summit that was held in Kyiv on July 9, 2018.
LAW, MACROFINANCIAL ASSISTANCE, MEMORANDUM, POROSHENKO, RATIFICATION, UKRAINE-EU
Milkiland, a dairy group with assets in Ukraine, Russia and Poland, in January-September 2018 saw EUR 13.42 million of net loss compared with EUR 4.55 million of net profit a year ago.
According to an unaudited report of the group posted on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), revenue over the period fell by 6.6%, to EUR 98.8 million, and gross profit – by 24.4%, to EUR 15.92 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 1.8-fold, to EUR 4.38 million.
Milkiland in January-September 2018 saw EUR 3.41 million of operating loss compared with EUR 3.01 million of operating profit a year ago.
The loan portfolio of the group was EUR 86.2 million as of September 30, 2018 compared with EUR 86.6 million as of late 2017, mainly thanks to repayment of the indebtedness under the restructuring agreements with Ukrainian and Polish banks. Net debt of the group declined by 1%, to EUR 85.7 million as of September 30, 2018.
The Russian market provided for EUR 59.53 million of the group’s revenue, the Ukrainian market – EUR 28.93 million and the Polish market – EUR 10.47 million.
Cheese & butter segment contributed approximately 38% to the group’s total revenue. Segment’s revenue increased by 19% to EUR 37.34 million, the whole-milk dairy segment – EUR 47.33 million (48% of total revenue) and the ingredients segment – EUR 14.26 million (14%).
“In 9M 2018 Milkiland Ukraine focused on the development of sales of high value-added products, including innovative lactose-free cheese and whole milk products, primarily in the key accounts channel. The company also paid an attention to production and export sales of Kosher dry milk products and butter under the contract with key client from Israel,” the company said.
In 9M 2018 Milkiland put additional efforts aimed at the entering to new and development of the sales at the existing export markets. In line with these efforts, Milkiland Intermarket continued a development of the distribution network of the group’s dry milk products and butter in China. Additional volumes of cheese-like products were sold to the traditional market of the group in Kazakhstan, as well as other Central-Asian countries. The company also continued a fulfillment of the Kosher goods supply contract with the key client in Israel.