France’s AgroGeneration with assets in Ukraine has signed agreements for the sale of 28,500 ha of agricultural lands (27% of the group’s land bank) in Zhytomyr and Ternopil regions for EUR 19 million.
According to a company report on its website, this price includes land lease rights and biological assets whereas machinery and inventory will be part of a separate sale.
According to the company, after the completion of these transactions, AgroGeneration will operate approximately 80,000 hectares of land in Ukraine with close to 10,000 hectares in the West (Lviv) and 70,000 hectares in the East (Sumy and Kharkiv).
The company said that due diligence, which could lead to a price adjustment, should be finalized by the end of February 2019. A prepayment has already been made to AgroGeneration for approximately 15% of the total price and an equivalent amount will be placed into an escrow account for a maximum period of nine months after completion of the due diligence.
In addition, AgroGeneration has secured its 2019 crop financing from its historical banking partner Alfa-Bank Ukraine for a total amount of $23 million, and will top-up its financing with pre-payment agreements with its usual key trading partners.
The company has already sown, under favorable weather conditions, 34,000 hectares of winter crops, out of a total of 77,000 hectares planned.
As reported, Kusto Agro Pte.Ltd (Singapore), which owns Kusto Agro in Ukraine, was permitted by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to acquire two agricultural enterprises in Zhytomyr region from AgroGeneration – Lischynske LLC and Tereschenko Agrarian Fund LLC.
The French group AgroGeneration was founded in 2007. It grows grains and oilseeds. In Ukraine it currently processes about 120,000 hectares.
In October 2013, AgroGeneration completed its merger with Ukrainian agricultural company Harmelia.
ATB-Market LLC (Dnipro), owning the discount shop chain in Ukraine and part of the ATB Corporation, in 2018 increased goods turnover by 22% compared with 2017, to UAH 103.6 billion (VAT included), the press service of the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The ATB chain has been expanded with 80 new and 41 reconstructed stores, and by the beginning of the year there were 990 outlets in 253 cities and large populated areas of 22 regions of Ukraine. The expansion of the network ensured a record turnover of UAH 103.6 billion in the 25-year history of ATB trading business (with VAT),” the press service said.
The press service said that that the company has increased the payment of taxes by 30% from the level of 2017, to UAH 9.4 billion.
The company expects in 2019 to maintain growth rates.
As reported, according to the results of 2017, the ATB chain increased trade turnover by 37% compared to 2016, to UAH 80.2 billion (including VAT).
The retail chain of ATB-Market was founded in 1993.
Ferrexpo Plc (the U.K.), which in Ukraine controls Poltava and Yeristovo mining enterprises, in 2018 exported 10.287 million tonnes of pellets to European countries, as well as to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China, remaining the leader in exports of pellets among similar companies from the CIS. The company said in a press release on Wednesday that the information was published by state-owned enterprise Ukrainian Industry Expertise.
Poltava Mining exported 7.61 million tonnes of iron ore pellets and Yeristovo Mining – 2.677 million tonnes.
According to the document, the Metinvest group exported 5.374 million tonnes of pellets (including Pivnichny Mining – 3.136 million tonnes, Central Mining – 2.239 million tonnes).
The Severstal Group, in particular, the Karelsky Okatysh (Russia) exported 5.293 million tonnes of iron ore pellets for the reporting period. The Metalloinvest group exported 4.205 million tonnes of pellets (including Mikhailovsky GOK – 2.817 million tonnes, Lebedinsky GOK – 1.389 million tonnes, all of them based in Russia). The Evraz group, in particular EVRAZ KGOK, exported 558,900 tonnes of pellets.
“Ferrexpo has traditionally become the leader in the export of iron ore pellets among the enterprises of the former USSR countries, according to the results of 12 months of 2018,” the company said in the press release referring to the data of Ukrainian Industry Expertise.
In addition, it is reported that during this period, Poltava Mining produced 10.607 million tonnes of iron ore pellets. The production of Mikhailovsky GOK totaled 14.887 million tonnes of iron ore pellets, Karelsky Okatysh – 11.225 million tonnes, and Pivnichny Mining – 8.45 million tonnes.
The Ukrainian Association of Medical Cannabis nongovernmental organization has sent an electronic petition to the Verkhovna Rada seeking to legalize cannabis for the scientific and medical purposes.
Activists are demanding to legally regulate patients’ access to cannabis drugs in the treatment of chronic pain, epilepsy, anorexia, post-traumatic syndrome, immune system diseases, arthritis and rheumatism, asthma, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, degenerative chorea, herpes, ulcers, AIDS weight loss, diabetic neuropathy, various forms of sclerosis and other serious diseases.
According to the petition, the text of which is posted on the website of the parliament on Wednesday, the use of drugs based on cannabis is regulated by the laws in Canada, the United States, Australia and EU member states.
To date, the petition has collected about 200 signatures.
In Ukraine, the use of medical cannabis is prohibited.
On February, 2 and 3 a «Horse program – interactive with the visitors» will take place near Kyiv in the «Kyivan Rus Park», during which the guests will get acquainted with the unique horses of historical breeds. An unforgettable journey into the epoch of the Middle Ages, live communication with the purebred horses, ancient Slavic winter amusements, master-classes, delicious dishes prepared on open-fire by the princely cooks and a lot more of new and interesting from the life of our ancestors will be waiting for the guests.
Ancient Kyiv opens at 10:00. The program starts at 13:00.
The ticket price: a full adult ticket – 150 UAH, for pensioners and students – 100 UAH, for schoolchildren – 50 UAH, for preschool children – for free.
Ancient Kyiv in the «Kyivan Rus Park» is situated in the vill. Kopachiv, Obukhiv district, Kyiv region.
Route taxis leave from Kyiv from the «Vydybitchi» metro station.
Detailed information on the website www.parkkyivrus.com
The Interfax subscribers can save money with the “openbusiness-20” promo code for a 20%-discount for a full price adult ticket to the Principality of Kyivan Rus:
– by previous order by tel.: +38 044 461-99-37, +38 050 385-20-35
– or at the cash desk at the entrance to the «Kyivan Rus Park».
Deloitte Touche Japan and Green Power Development Japan (both based in Japan) are interested in building solar power plants with the capacity of up to 1.2 GW in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. This information was made public at a meeting of Olha Buslavets, the Director General of the Energy Markets Directorate of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, Masatoshi Nishimoto, the Director of Deloitte Touche Japan, the Executive Director of Green Power Development Japan, and representatives of the Japanese government in Kyiv on January 30.
According to the press service of the ministry, during the meeting the parties discussed the economic and technical aspects of construction of solar plants, as well as a draft law on the introduction of “green” auctions.
As reported, the construction of a pilot solar plant with a capacity of 1 MW of the Enerparc AG-Rodina Energy Group consortium was completed in early 2018. In the autumn of 2018, the consortium announced its intention to increase the station’s capacity to 100 MW.
