The largest number of vacancies in 2018 was offered in the field of sales, IT, telecoms and marketing, according to a study conducted by the international recruiting portal HeadHunter Ukraine.
According to its press release, with reference to the results of the survey, last year both a rise and a decline were observed in the labor market of Ukraine.
More than half of respondents, describing the situation in the industry where their company operates, called it stable or noted some growth and positive dynamics.
According to HeadHunter Ukraine, the regional structure of vacancies and resumes last year remained unchanged. The top five regions include Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Lviv regions. In terms of cities, the largest number of both vacancies and resumes was presented in the capital.
According to the study, competition in the labor market in the country in 2018 was mainly at the level of three or four people per vacancy. The growth of the load on one vacant job of up to five people was recorded in October-December.
Consolidated net profit of Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest international vertically integrated mining and metallurgical group, grew by 93% in 2018 compared with 2017, to $1.188 billion from $617 million.
According to the audited financial statements published on Thursday, revenue rose by 335, to $11.88 billion from $8.931 billion, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 23%, to $2.513 billion from $2.044 billion. Gross profit rose by 28%, to $2.787 billion.
The total debt of the company fell by 9%, to $2.743 billion, and cash and cash equivalents grew by 8%, to $280 million.
“In 2018, Metinvest delivered some of its best results in the last four years, proving that it has indeed turned a corner through proactive operational, strategic and financial management,” Chief Executive Officer of Metinvest Yuriy Ryzhenkov said, commenting on the results.
“The operational results were decent: production rose by 3% year-on-year for hot metal, was largely unchanged for crude steel and iron ore concentrate, jumped by 11% for coke and climbed by 9% for coal,” he said.
Amid this, the group reinvigorated its CAPEX programme in the year, spending nearly $900 million to modernise and catch up on deferred maintenance of assets in the largest such outlay since 2011. Metinvest’s Technological Strategy 2030, which serves as a roadmap to guide the group in fulfilling its strategic priorities, aims to strengthen core production processes to lay a solid foundation for future upgrades to downstream facilities.
Among others, the main achievement of the Mariupol steelmakers was the construction of continuous casting machine No. 4 at Illich Steel, which was completed without major delays and on budget. The machine has eliminated casting bottlenecks and effectively expanded the plant’s annual crude steel production capacity by around 40% to 4.3 million tonnes.
“Importantly, around one third of the project cost was financed using long-term funding guaranteed by the Austrian export credit agency,” Ryzhenkov said.
At the iron ore producers, Metinvest is conducting an extensive heavy truck fleet upgrade to improve output volumes and production efficiency. At Northern GOK and Central GOK, pelletising machines are undergoing large-scale maintenance to allow the group to further capitalise on strong pellet premiums, he said.
Metinvest remains committed to securing its long-term future. To this end, in 2018, the group acquired minority stakes in two assets that are an ideal fit for the business model and will help to strengthen vertical integration and improve resilience to economic cycles. The stakes of 24.99% in the Pokrovske coal business and 23.71% in Yuzhcoke will secure long-term supplies of high-quality Ukrainian coking coal and coke to improve Metinvest’s self-sufficiency in these key inputs.
Underpinned by favourable steel and iron ore prices and ongoing economic growth in Ukraine, the Group delivered its strongest financial results in 2018. Revenues soared by 33% year-on-year due to an enhanced focus on priority markets, while EBITDA rose by 23% year-on year, with both the steel and mining segments contributing equally. Free cash flow generation for the reporting period reached $673 million, up nearly five-fold year-on-year, driven by the robust EBITDA and dividends from a mining joint venture.
“After successfully refinancing its bonds and pre-export facility, Metinvest has normalised its debt portfolio to achieve a sustainable maturity profile, improving the investment case as a result. These achievements received official acclaim when the transaction won the Emerging EMEA Bond of 2018 nomination in the International Financing Review annual awards,” the top manager said.
“In 2019, global iron ore and steel prices are an ongoing source of uncertainty. Trade tensions and concerns about a potential global economic slowdown are creating price pressure. This year will also bring presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine, which could cause some turbulence,” Ryzhenkov said.
At the same time, Metinvest will continue to prioritise improving operational performance and implementing the long-term upgrade programme; emphasising health and safety, of both staff and contractors; and reducing environmental impact.
“I would like to thank our clients, investors, creditors, employees and other stakeholders for their support during 2018,” he said.
Capital investment in agriculture in 2018 totaled UAH 90 billion, including UAH 25 billion invested in processing, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“Last year, UAH 90 billion were invested in the agricultural and industrial complex, almost UAH 25 billion were funds invested in processing… We have not yet used even a third of our potential [in the agricultural and industrial complex],” he said at the tenth Agroport West Lviv International agricultural exhibition and forum on supporting farming held in Lviv on Thursday.
According to him, the share of agriculture of Ukraine’s GDP is 17%, but only 4% of it are processed products, the rest is raw materials.
“Our task is to change this structure. At least a quarter of the gross product should be for the agricultural and industrial complex. We must increase the in-depth processing of Ukrainian products,” Groysman said.
The prime minister said that products grown in Ukraine are represented in 190 countries.
Vice-President of Alfa-Bank (Kyiv) Iryna Skorokhodova has created Property Investment Boutique STRIX, which core business is purchase, management and sale of property. The company’s portfolio includes projects for $300 million.
“Alfa Bank was a temporary player in the real estate market. The real estate division was created to sell all that remained from the bank’s collateral. Therefore, to save the team and its experience, I launched a new company STRIX about a month ago and now its portfolio has facilities in Kyiv worth $300 million,” Skorokhodova said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to her, in particular, at present the STRIX portfolio includes 11 business centers, one shopping center, three land parcels for development, and one hotel construction project.
“All our business centers are successfully operating facilities with zero vacancy and foreign tenants,” Skorokhodova said.
According to the website of STRIX, it provides provide A-Z range of services from the property search for acquisition to property sale and further management.
According to Skorokhodova, the Alfa-Bank Real Estate Division is faced with the task of leaving the remaining assets as quickly as possible. At the same time, she considers the successful experience of selling Alfa-Bank’s collateralized property as an achievement of the Alfa-Real Estate team.
“According to estimates by Cushman & Wakefield, the volume of transactions in the secondary real estate market in Kyiv amounted to $330 million. So, $190 million of this amount is our deals,” the bank’s vice-president said.
Ukraine’s SkyUp airline will service flights from Zaporizhia to Barcelona and from Kharkiv to Barcelona, Larnaca, Rimini and Kutaisi, the airline has reported.
Flights Zaporizhia-Barcelona and Kharkiv-Barcelona will be serviced from May 25, 2019 on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the price of one-way tickets without luggage starts from UAH 2,875 and UAH 3,025, respectively.
Flights Kharkiv-Larnaca will be operated from May 30 on Thursdays, the price of one-way tickets starts from UAH 2,346.
Flights Kharkiv-Rimini will be launched from June 2 on Sundays, the one-way ticket price starts from UAH 2,617, Kharkiv-Kutaisi – also from June 2 on Tuesdays and Fridays, with one-way tickets price starting from UAH 2,210.
In October 2018, SkyUp received a Third Country Operators (TCO) certificate that allows flying to 28 countries of the European Union, as well as to Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
SkyUp Airline LLC was registered in Kyiv in June 2016. The founder of SkyUp was ACS-Ukraine belonging to Tetiana Alba and Yuriy Alba, who also own JoinUp! tour operator.
Transport enterprises of Ukraine (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as part of Donbas) in January and February 2019 increased cargo transportation by 5.9% compared to January and February 2018, to 103.1 million tonnes.
The State Statistics Service said freight turnover for this period increased by 2.9%, to 52.1 billion tonne-kilometers.
According to statistical data, in January and February 2019 some 40.5 million tonnes of cargo were transported by rail within the country and for exports, which is 4.2% less than in January and February 2018.
Transportation of scrap ferrous metals decreased by 55.6%, timber by 55.2%, construction materials by 35.2%, coke by 12.7%, ferrous metals by 9.8%, cement by 6.7%, coal by 1.7%. At the same time, transportation of iron and manganese ore grew by 0.7%, chemical and mineral fertilizers by 1.4%, grain and cereals by 19.5%, and oil and petroleum products by 24.8%.
In the total volume of cargo transportation by sea overseas accounted for 76.9%. The volume of overseas cargo transportation in the reporting period decreased by 21.6% compared with January and February 2018.
In January and February 2019 compared with the same period last year, the volume of cargo transported by pipelines increased. Thus, gas pumping grew by 5.7%, oil – by 2.8%, gas transit – by 15%, and oil – by 3.1%. Pumping and transit of ammonia increased 21.4% and 18.1%, respectively.
