The Ministry of Economy and Finance of France has allocated a grant of EUR 560,000 to Ukraine to finance a joint project of Ukrenergo and RTE International for the implementation of Ukraine’s first energy storage system, the press service of the Ukrainian company has reported. According to its data, in the next six months, RTE International plans to implement the first phase of the project: a feasibility study and technical assignments for further work. At the second stage, the possible cost will be determined, a model of the future storage system and a roadmap will be created with a list of all necessary measures for the implementation of the joint project.
Ukrenergo notes that the project is of a great importance for the future development of the Ukrainian energy sector and the integration of the domestic energy system into the energy system of continental Europe, since one of the requirements is to ensure the required amount of primary frequency control.
In addition, over the past few years, there has been an increase in wind and solar power generation in Ukraine, which will require the construction of additional highly maneuverable capacities that meet the environmental requirements of European countries.
“The start of cooperation with RTE, the leading player in the European market, the implementation of a complicated and innovative energy storage project is a significant step towards our European integration and the strengthening of Ukraine’s energy security,” Ukrenergo Head Vsevolod Kovalchuk said.
The share of vacant space in the market of shopping centers in Kyiv in the fourth quarter of 2018 for the first time in the last two years has stabilized at 3.7%, the press service of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) consulting company in Ukraine has said.
“The cessation of decline in the vacancy rate is due to the achievement of a temporary equilibrium in the market of shopping centers in Kyiv. After a significant increase in the first half of the year (by 20%) to almost the pre-crisis level of $1,140 per sq m a year, rental rates have also stabilized,” Yekateryna Vesna, the head of the retail space department at JLL (Ukraine), said.
According to the company, over the year the vacancy rate in the capital market decreased by 1.9 percentage points and amounted to 3.7%.
“At the same time, in comparison with other European capitals, rental rates in Kyiv remain relatively low: for example, the maximum rental rate in Warsaw is higher by 55%, in Prague by 80%. The relatively low cost of premises together with the growth of public purchasing power contributed to sustainable demand from international retailers in the Ukrainian market. This was also supported by the desire of lessors to increase the presence of well-known global brands in their facilities,” the expert said.
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator from February 1, 2019 discontinues some existing tariffs for contract subscribers, which start from UAH 125 a month, and transfers clients to the updated tariffs, starting from UAH 150 per month with the extended services for business tasks. “From February 1, 2019, all Kyivstar corporate subscribers will be provided with new updated tariff plans with enhanced opportunities for doing business,” the largest Ukrainian operator said on its website.
Kyivstar told Interfax-Ukraine, the operator analyzed the statistics of customer use of services, and taking it into account, the operator picked the best new tariff plans. At the same time, the client retains the opportunity of switching to self-selected cheaper tariff plans.
Kyivstar said that from February, Kyivstar 4G 125 2018, Kyivstar 4G 175 2018, Kyivstar 4G 275 2018, Kyivstar 4G Premium 2018, Kyivstar 4G Business 2018 (UAH 750 a month) and Kyivstar 4G Business VIP 2018 (UAH 1,000 a month) tariff plans will be terminated.
“Their subscribers will be automatically and transferred to existing commercial offers with the best content free of charge,” the operator said.
Kyivstar said that, in particular, its customers will get more minutes for calls to other networks (which can also be used for calls abroad for some countries), unlimited Internet access, and free connection of a SIM-pair service with unlimited Internet access. For tariff plans starting from UAH 500 a month Mobile ID and Microsoft Office 365 software will be provided at no additional charge.
The new tariff line includes Kyivstar 4G (UAH 150 a month), Kyivstar 4G Extra (UAH 225 a month), Kyivstar 4G Ultra (UAH 350 a month), Kyivstar 4G Business (UAH 500 a month) and Kyivstar 4G Business VIP (UAH 1,000 a month) tariff plans.
“Additional business opportunities are now an integral part of the tariffs for entrepreneurs,” the company said.
In addition, from February 1, the terms of service of individual tariff plans also change, and M2M subscribers are transferred to new tariff plans, in which Internet traffic volumes have been significantly increased, and the possibility of using an innovative platform for managing M2M SIM cards is provided for (15 tariff plans).
In addition, from February 1, the company terminates the already irrelevant package offers for additional megabytes of traffic, in particular: Free Internet, Internet 1000, Business Internet 500, 10 MB Daily, GPRS Internet 100, GPRS Internet 1000, Business Internet 5, Business Internet 50, Internet 100, Internet 20 and the tariff Communication.
The surplus of Ukraine’s balance of payment in 2018 grew by 12.1% compared with the previous year, to $2.88 billion, according to preliminary data published by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). “The surplus of the balance of payments is recorded for the fourth year in a row. In particular, last year, primarily it was thanks to a significant inflow of capital in a financial account: obtaining official funding from international partners and borrowing on foreign markets,” the regulator said in a press release.
According to the NBU, in 2018, the current account deficit increased to $4.65 billion from $2.44 billion a year earlier due to the widening deficit of trade with goods. The favorable foreign economic situation for most of the year and the high harvest of grains and oilseeds in 2018 supported export growth, but the complication of transportation in the Sea of Azov and repairs at some enterprises held back its growth, the regulator said.
The NBU said that strong domestic demand and high energy prices have led to a high growth rate of imports of goods compared with exports.
According to the NBU, in 2018, exports of goods grew by 9.2%, to $43.34 billion, while imports by 14.0%, to $56.3 billion.
The central bank said that the sale of food products abroad increased by 4.8%, primarily thanks to an increase in sales of grain crops by 11.4% in monetary terms.
In addition, exports of ferrous and non-ferrous metals grew by 15.3% thanks to favorable pricing conditions.
The largest increase in exports, as the central bank said, occurred in the EU countries – by 15.5%, as a result of which the share of EU countries of total exports of goods increased to 37.6% from 35.6% in 2017. At the same time, the share of Asian countries decreased from 32.4% to 31.5% and Russia’s – to 7.0% from 8.5%.
As for imports, energy imports increased by 15.0%, primarily due to higher global energy prices, the NBU said.
The regulator said that non-energy imports grew by 13.7%, in particular, under the influence of strong domestic demand, imports of engineering products continued to grow at a high rate – by 17.8%, food and industrial goods – by 17.6% and 21%, respectively.
Last year, most of all, imports of goods from Asian countries increased – by 27.3%, as a result, their share increased to 22.4% from 20.1% in 2017. At the same time, despite the increase in imports from EU countries (by 12.4%), their share decreased to 36.6% from 37.2%. Russia’s share also declined – to 14.2% from 14.5%.
The National Bank links the growth of services exports over the past year by 10.6%, to $15.67 billion, primarily, with an increase in exports of services of the IT sector, processing of raw materials supplied by customers and the provision of services in the field of tourism. Imports of services increased 8.0%, to $14.2 billion thanks to an increase in the costs of Ukrainians going abroad and the increased demand for transport and other business services.
The National Bank estimated remittances to Ukraine from Ukrainians working abroad over the past year at $11.33 billion, which is 24.3% higher than the 2017 figure.
At the same time, nonresidents in 2018 withdrew revenues from previously invested funds in the amount of $8.54 billion from Ukraine, exceeding the similar volume of the previous year by 27%. Reverse flow amounted to $0.37 billion, or 90% more than in 2017.
According to the NBU, the net capital inflow on the financial account rose to $7.49 billion, which is almost 1.5 times higher than the 2017 figure. In general, at the end of the year, the inflow in the private sector prevailed, but at the end of the year, with the unblocking of cooperation with the IMF, the role of the public sector increased significantly. In particular, in the fourth quarter, the government placed $2 billion in eurobonds and attracted financing from the World Bank and the EU totaling $1 billion.
Net inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ukraine, according to NBU estimates, amounted to $2.36 billion in 2018, which is less than in 2017 ($2.59 billion). More than half of FDI – 58% – were sent to the real economy, while investment in the financial sector accounted for 42% of the total volume, almost half of them were banking sector operations for re-issuing debt into charter capital.
The NBU said that thanks to the surplus of the consolidated balance of payments and obtaining an IMF loan, Ukraine’s international reserves increased by 10.7% over the past year, to $20.8 billion or 3.4 months of Current External Payments (CXP) at the end of 2018.
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.
