KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Investment of private joint-stock company Lantmannen Axa Ukraine in modernization of a breakfast cereal plant in Boryspil has reached $15 million since 2000.
“Since 2000 we have invested $15 million in modernization of our enterprise,” Lantmannen Axa Ukraine Director General Ihor Chervak told Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that Lantmannen Axa Ukraine acquired a porridge packaging line for the plant, and a new packaging line in 2014. The AXA crisp muesli line and the START flakes line were installed.
Lantmannen Axa Ukraine bought Boryspil Foodstuff Plant in 2000. Its annual breakfast cereal production capacity is around 7,000 tonnes.
The company’s share of the breakfast cereal market in Ukraine exceeds 50%.
“The [breakfast cereal] market is narrowing. According to Nielsen research company, last year it declined 9%. Competition on the market has increased. Retail chains started selling product under private label,” Chervak said.
He said that in 2014 Russian products were removed from Ukrainian shelves, while Polish and Turkish food occupied the share of the Russian products. In addition, duties on products from the EU are falling after the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement took effect. If before the Association Agreement the duties on breakfast cereal reached 20%, now they are 4-6%.
He said that the company could invest in bread business in Ukraine in the medium term outlook.
“The Ukrainian bread market is a hot-button issue. We looked at several bread businesses here earlier that we could buy, but we took a pause now,” he said.
The company has a wide range of foodstuff. Imported products of total sales in Ukraine are less than 10%.
Lantmannen Axa Ukraine is a subsidiary of Scandinavian Lantmannen with four business divisions: food, machinery, grain trading and energy division. The key facilities of Lantmannen are located in the EU. The company sells flakes and muesli under the AXA and START brands, AXA bars, Masha and Bear ready to eat breakfasts and Finn Crisp bread.
KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Insurance companies in Ukraine in 2016 increased OSAGO premium collection by 14.7% compared to 2015, to UAH 3.407 billion.
According to the website of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU), the number of OSAGO contracts for the past year increased by 3.3%, to 7.049 million.
According to the MTIBU, the total volume of insurance claim fee payments under internal insurance contracts for the year increased by 29%, to UAH 1.405 billion. Of these, UAH 151.688 million was paid using Europrotocols, which is 2.09 times more than in 2015.
The bureau also recorded an increase in the number of regulated claims for insurance compensation – by 20.6%, to 119,186, of which 20,487 using Europrotocols.
The Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine is the only association of insurers, conducting compulsory insurance of civil liability of vehicle owners for harm caused to third parties. The bureau members are 54 insurance companies.
KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Norway’s Scatec Solar is mulling construction of two solar power plants with the installed capacity of 60 MW in Ukraine, the press service of Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Ministry has reported.
The press service said that Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Natalia Boiko and representatives of Scatec Solar discussed construction of solar power plants at a meeting on Tuesday.
Scatec Solar operates solar power plants with a capacity of 322 MW in the Czech Republic, South Africa, Ruanda, Honduras and Jordan.
KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Vega launch vehicle (LV) with the Ukrainian engine was successfully launched on Tuesday from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The Sentinel-2B Earth observation satellite for Copernicus was put into orbit.
According to a report on the website of Pivdenmash (Yuzhmash, Dnipro), the launch from the spaceport in French Guiana was the ninths launch under the Vega program and first in 2017.
According to the report, the Sentinel-2B satellite is the fourth satellite launched for Copernicus.
Copernicus (earlier GMES) is a global environment monitoring system aimed at achieving a global, continuous, autonomous, high quality, wide range Earth observation capacity.
The Vega was designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for carrying satellites with a weight up to 1,200 kilos to a 1,200-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit and satellites with a weight of 1,500 kilograms to a 700-kilometer polar orbit. The RD-868P cruise engine for the fourth stage of the rocket was developed by the Yuzhnoye (Pivdenne) Design Bureau and built by the Yuzhmash (Pivdenmash) Plant (both situated in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine).
The Ukrainian government and the ESA signed an agreement on cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space in 2008. The ESA unites 17 European countries.
The medium-term plans announced by the Ukrainian State Space Agency in 2015 include Ukraine’s gradual entry into the ESA and integration of the Ukrainian rocket and space industry with the European one.
KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s alcohol company Olymp is looking for an investor to finish construction of the second phase of Malinowski Glass Plant and converting the facilities of the screwing cap plant (both based in Kharkiv region).
“The Malynivka industrial park [Prime distillery, Malinowski Glass Plant and the screwing cap plant] is the only cluster in Ukraine of this type. Diversity and unrestricted possibilities of the industrial park foresee permanent development and search for investors,” Olymp Board Chairman Mykola Usachev told Interfax-Ukraine.
Olymp was founded in April 2000. It produces and sells vodka under the Prime, Idea, Malynivka and Istynna brands. The founder and owner of Olymp is businessman Pavlo Klymets.
KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The regional department of Ukraine’s State Property Fund (SPF) has put 99.998% of the share capital of public joint-stock company Spektr-Smela (Cherkasy region), a upholstered furniture fitments producer, up for sale.
According to an announcement in the Vidomosti Pryvatyzatsii newspaper, the initial price of the stake is UAH 36.719 million. The auction will be held on March 31.
According to the conditions of the tender, technological unity and integrity of production are to be retained, new types of products are to be developed and arrears in payments to budgets and payment of wages cannot be recorded.
The fund said that in 2016 sales of the company grew by 17%, to UAH 14.9 million. The balance sheet profit was UAH 1.73 million compared to UAH 700,000 a year ago, and net profit totaled UAH 1.42 million compared to UAH 570,000.
The company’s receivables as of January 1, 2017 was UAH 3.85 million, and accounts payable – UAH 3.53 million, production efficiency was 9.5%. The cost of assets amounted to UAH 34.7 million and the net worth – UAH 32 million.
Spektr-Smela was founded in 1995. The company produces mechanisms for transforming sofas, furniture brackets, hinges, corners, wheel supports, carcasses of sofas and beds, as well as tooling. It also provides metal processing services.
