KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Municipal institution Mykolaiv Development Agency has designed 16 business projects to attract investors to the city, Agency Director Vasyl Hoshovsky has said.
“These are turn-key businesses ready to be introduced as investment projects. Today we have drawn up 16 projects. The main thing is that we have worked out a scheme how we can design these projects and we will work on it in the future,” Hoshovsky said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said that first 16 business cases are first linked to those spheres of business which are of top priority for Mykolaiv today and which have advantages compared to other cities and regions of Ukraine.
“These are projects with investments from $1 million to around $50 million. The key spheres are small-size shipbuilding, agricultural product processing and agroindustrial complex. A project to build a class A shopping and leisure center is also proposed. This is one of the largest projects in the business cases,” Hoshovsky said.
He said that the website Invest in Mykolaiv was designed for potential investors. The website is being tested and will be launched soon. Investors will be able to see land parcels on the city’s map that will be put up for auction. The parcels can be used for construction and municipally-owned facilities. They will be put up for sale or leasing.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that city authorities have shaped the first version of the investment map of the city intended to show competitive advantages of Mykolaiv to potential investors.
“This is a first tool of this level in Mykolaiv. It makes clear the things we have not only for residents of the city, but for people who are looking for territories for investment,” Senkevych said.
He said that in 2016 private investment in Mykolaiv totaled $320 million. Most of it was sent to develop the port zone of the city and construction of terminals.
Senkevych said that in 2017 investment in the city could fall, as there are no large projects that would be launched soon.
“There is the internal investor – the company Nibulon. It seeks to invest in its fleet expansion and starts river communications… I think that the zone adjacent to the port near rivers will start developing,” he said.
KYIV. Jan 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Pfeifer & Langen (Germany) has closed a deal on the acquisition of six sugar factories in Ternopil region, previously owned by T-Tsukor holding.
“We’ve purchased six T-Tsukor factories: Borschiv, Buchach, Zbarazh, Kozova, Lanivtsi and Khorostkiv sugar factories (Ternopil region),” Director of Radekhiv Sugar LLC Vitaliy Sikorsky told Interfax-Ukraine.
The financial partner of the transaction was Bank Pivdennyi.
As reported, T-Tsukor, which owned the abovementioned six plants in Ternopil region and Horodenka plant in Ivano-Frankivsk region, was controlled by the Huta family.
Until 2014 T-Tsukor sugar holding had been one of three leaders in sugar production in Ukraine, but in 2014 the factories were standing idle.
Pfeifer&Langen is the largest European producer of sugar. The company, in particular, owns sugar factories in Germany, Poland, Romania, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine. In Ukraine, it owns Radekhiv sugar factory (Lviv region) and Chortkiv sugar factory (Ternopil region).
KYIV. Jan 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Construction of a new grain terminal of Novotech-Terminal LLC with a projected annual capacity of around 3 million tonnes has been started at Odesa maritime merchandise port.
According to a posting on the website of bank Pivdenny, which acts as a financial partner of Novotech-Terminal jointly with Tekom-Lease, the terminal will be built in four stages and ends in 2019.
The new terminal will be located at berths 25 and 26 of the port. It will service vessels of up to 250 meters longs and water draft of up to 11 meters. The terminal will have a port elevator with a storage capacity of 110,000 tonnes.
“The construction projects has passed all the required examinations and approvals, and the land parcel where the facility will be built was leased by Odesa Regional Administration for a long period of time,” the bank said.
Novotech-Terminal stevedoring company was founded in October 2004. It operates at berths 22, 25 and 26 of Odesa seaport. The company handles exported, imported and transit cargos.
DAVOS. Jan 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The sector of Ukrainian product IT companies thanks to a rapid growth in recent years in terms of cost became comparable with the sector of outsourcing IT companies and has a significant potential of growth in the light of experience accumulated, the formation of an appropriate business environment and a high interest of venture investors, head of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) Andriy Kolodiuk considers.
“There appear more and more product companies. My total evaluation of product companies exceeds $2.5 billion: one deal with Looksery is $150 million, but we also have a full list of 3,000 start ups and companies in Ukraine. Therefore I am confident that the aggregate value of them has already exceeded $2.5 billion,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Ukrainian lunch organized by the Pinchuk Foundation in Davos.
Kolodiuk, being also a venture investor, founder and managing partner of AVentures Capital, noted that venture investors invest only in product companies and do not invest in outsourcing.
“Large funds such as (George) Soros Fund, Horizon Capital invest in outsourcing – this is another story. And we invest in product companies because this is the exit [the possibility of selling to the very high profitability], on which this business is built,” he said.
According to him, among the projects available in the portfolio of AVentures, for example, Petcube will cost at least $600 million, and this success encourages other investors to invest.
KYIV. Jan 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises in December 2016 increased steel production by 4.5% compared with December 2015, to 2.015 million tonnes, being the 10th place in the ranking among 66 countries, the world’s major manufacturers of these products, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
Growth in steel production in December was fixed in most countries from the top ten states, except for South Korea and Brazil.
The top ten steel makers in December looks as follows: China (67.22 million tonnes, a 3.2% rise), Japan (8.711 million tonnes, a 1.5% rise), India (8.397 million tonnes, 15% up), the United States (6.619 million tonnes, a rise of 11%), Russia (6.213 million tonnes, an 8% rise), South Korea (5.858 million tonnes, a 0.2% drop), Germany (3.23 million tonnes, 8.2% up), Turkey (2.838 million tonnes, 6.2% up), Brazil (2.149 million tonnes, 12.7% down), and Ukraine (2.015 million tonnes, 4.5% up).
In general, 66 countries in December 2016 produced 134.059 million tonnes of steel, which is 5.5% more than in December 2015.
In 2016 the top ten steel makers included China (808.37 million tonnes, an increase of 1.2%), Japan (104.772 million tonnes, a drop of 0.3%), India (95.618 million tonnes, an increase of 7.4%), the United States (78.619 million tonnes, a drop of 0.3%), Russia (70.8 million tonnes, a drop of 0.1%), South Korea (68.567 million tonnes, a drop of 1.6%), Germany (42.082 million tonnes, a drop of 1.4%), Turkey (33.163 million tonnes, an increase of 5.2%), Brazil (30.212 million tonnes, a drop of 9.2%), and Ukraine (24.221 million tonnes, an increase of 5.5%).
In general, the 66 countries produced 1.604 billion tonnes of steel in 2016, which was 0.7% up year-over-year.
KYIV. Jan 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Shipbuilding company Smart Maritime Group (SMG), part of Smart-holding, in 2016 increased production by 49% compared to 2015, to UAH 395 million, the press service of SMG has said.
According to the report, in 2016 Kherson Shipyard, part of SMG, provided the building of a SEA ANT multipurpose oil skimmer under the HM 440 project on the order of Yuzhny branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. In addition, last year SMG repaired and modernized 46 vessels, among which was the Mykolaiv border patrol ship of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
According to the report, now SMG continues to develop the capacity of mechanical engineering and metal working: in 2016 its machine building plants fulfilled contracts for a total of UAH 9 million. Among the main customers are Metinvest group of companies, Yugcement.
Smart Maritime Group sub-holding (SMG) of Smart-holding belonging to businessman Vadim Novinsky, created in 2009, includes Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (Mykolaiv) and Kherson Shipyard.
In July 2016 the Economic Court of Kherson region declared Kherson Shipyard bankrupt and started liquidation procedures.
