Germany’s STADA pharmaceutical company is acquiring pharmaceutical business of prescription and OTC preparations of Biopharma blood product manufacturer. According to a STADA press release on Monday, Biopharma’s pharmaceutical business will become an integral part of STADA in Ukraine and has strong growth potential in the production of high-quality prescription and OTC drugs. The agreement provides for the acquisition of production facilities in the city of Bila Tserkva (Kyiv region).
Biopharma shareholders will preserve the company’s plasma processing business and focus on its development both in Ukraine and abroad. To acquire it STADA must obtain permission to merge in Ukraine.
The transaction is expected to close in December 2019.
STADA’s Ukrainian business will be led by newly appointed CEO Borys Labensky.
Biopharma President Kostyantyn Efymenko, together with partner Vasyl Khmelnytsky and financial investors, will focus on developing the Biopharma plasma processing business, developing the new Biopharma plasma fractionator and a network of modern blood collection centers and expanding its presence in international markets.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 02/12/19

Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Epicenter K LLC (Kyiv), developing the chain of eponymous shopping centers in Ukraine, opens a shopping center in Ternopil, which will become the largest facility of the chain in the region, after its reconstruction and completion. The retailer’s press service reported on Friday that the area of the shopping center built in 2008, after the reconstruction, increased 1.5 times, to 25,000 square meters.
“Thus, the company continues the program of reconstruction of shopping centers in the chain, which began in 2015. For four years, 13 facilities have already been reformatted into innovative shopping centers. By the end of the year, plans are to open three more new and reformatted shopping centers,” the press service said.
According to the press service, in the facility, among other things, an Intersport multi-brand sports goods chain store will be opened on an area of 605 square meters. Among the largest departments are “Garden” (3,600 square meters), “Building materials” with outdoor areas (2,700 square meters), “Wood products” (2,000 square meters).
In addition to renovations of departments, improved and internal navigation, many nuances were taken into account for the convenience and comfort of customers. The facility also includes a goods distribution center of the 27.ua online store and a parking area for 650 cars.
Epicenter K LLC was established in 2003 and opened the first hypermarket in Kyiv in December of the same year.
Ukraine as of November 28 had threshed 74.3 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops from an area of 15 million hectares, exceeding the result of the grain harvest for the whole of 2018, when the gross harvest amounted to 70.1 million tonnes. “Some 74.3 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops were harvested from an area of 15 million hectares, or 98% of the forecast, with the average yield being 4.93 tonnes/ha (4.7 tonnes/ha in 2018),” Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Tymofiy Mylovanov said on his Facebook page.
As reported, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture predicts grain harvest in 2019 at the level of 74 million tonnes, including 28.1 million tonnes of wheat and 35 million tonnes of corn.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia plans to reach a net profit indicator of UAH 1.3 billion in 2020, which is 71.1% less than the plan for 2019 or 62% less than the expected figure for the current year. This is stated in the draft financial plan of the enterprise for 2020, presented at the American Chamber of Commerce.
“We hope that by the end of the year it will be adopted in parliament,” Ivan Yuryk, a member of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia, said.
In addition, according to the financial plan, Ukrzaliznytsia intends to reduce EBITDA by 24% in 2020 compared to the plan for 2019, to UAH 19.08 billion, EBITDA margin by 5.9 percentage points, to 18.5%.
According to the draft document, the volume of freight traffic will increase by 5.5% compared with the expected freight turnover in 2019, to 192.6 million tonne-kilometers. In particular, it is planned to increase transportation in all directions: transit traffic by 8.8% (up to 16.9 million tonne-kilometers), export by 3.7% (up to 83 million tonne-kilometers), domestic by 9.3% (to 68.4 million tonne-kilometers).
The volume of passenger traffic in 2020 should increase by 1.5% (up to 28.8 million passenger-kilometers) compared with the expected passenger flow in 2019. In particular, the largest increase in passenger traffic is expected in international traffic – by 10.1% (to 1.1 million passenger-km), in domestic traffic by 1.2% (up to 22.5 million passenger-km), suburban by 0.9% (up to 5.1 million passenger-km).