KYIV. Oct 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The 18th EU-Ukraine summit will be held in Brussels on November 24, the press service for the Council of the European Union said.
“On Thursday 24 November Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, will host the 18th EU-Ukraine summit. He will represent the EU together with Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission. President Petro Poroshenko will represent Ukraine,” a report posted on the website of the Council of the European Union on Monday said.
According to the report, the leaders will discuss liberalization of the visa regime between Ukraine and the EU, implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the agenda of reforms and anti-corruption measures in Ukraine.
According to earlier reports, the next annual EU-Ukraine summit was to be held in May 2016, but the parties agreed to reschedule it to fall 2016. The reason for the rescheduling was the two parties’ wish to deliver specific results by this event.
Specifically, the parties expect to be able to make particular statements at the summit regarding the visa-free regime for Ukraine, and also the prospects of further ratification of the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU. In addition, Ukraine was given an opportunity to conduct key reforms within the framework of its cooperation with the IMF, including those that open up the way to macroeconomic assistance from the EU.
Ukraine expects the EU-Ukraine summit to result in the adoption of a joint bilateral document reflecting issues that concern Ukrainian society such as the visa-free regime, the prospects of enactment of the association agreement, the continuation of the sanctions against Russia, the prospects of macro financial assistance from the EU, and also agreements on common airspace.
KYIV. Oct 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrzaliznytsia has increased the annual wagon repair plan from 19,370 to 29,970, including for securing the growing exports of grain that could be 5 million tonnes a month by all means of transport by the end of this year.
“The anticipated harvest is 83 million tonnes of grain and 45 million tonnes for exports … five million tonnes every year, until the end of the year, the peak months, plus restrictions for transportation by road. There will be grain and there will be problems with its transportation,” Ukrzaliznytsia Board Chairman Wojciech Balczun said on Facebook after a meeting with the largest agricultural producers, grain traders and the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine on October 5.
He said that the number of Ukrzaliznytsia’s grain carriers has not decreased, but the last grain carrier was bought by the company in 1993, and applications for transportation of grain have considerably grown.
“I repeat: we are ahead of the grain transportation target. For our part we are doing everything to meet the needs of grain traders. We reduced the turnover of wagons, introduced special procedures for delay of rolling stock, as well as anticipated personal disciplinary responsibility of heads of services, branches and employees of the central office. All unprofessional actions or sabotage will be strictly punished,” Balczun said.
He added that acute problems with fuel, lubricants and locomotives are being settled, but due to the many-year accumulation of problems this year would be heavy.
“We need your support. Do not blame Ukrzaliznytsia that it fails to cope with the situation. We need some time,” he said, addressing the meeting participants.
He said that grain traders asked to support them in dispute with the Infrastructure Ministry asking the ministry to relax the limits for cargo transported by road during the peak period.
KYIV. Oct 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Viatrans SA (Switzerland) has become a shareholder in Persha insurance company (Kyiv) holding 22% of its share capital (132,000 shares).
The insurance company said that two individuals who held 33.47% of shares each (200,833 shares) reduced their stakes to 22.47% (134,833 shares).
As reported, the Association of International Road Carriers of Ukraine (AsMAP) held 24% of the share capital, 33.5% of shares belonged to company head Natalia Bezbakh and a member of the supervisory board Leonid Kostiuchenko each.
The Swiss company on March 4, 2016 officially announced its plans to acquire 22% of shares in the Ukrainian insurer. The national commission for financial service markets regulation approved the acquisition on September 8, 2016.
According to Standard-Rating, the appearance of a foreign investor in the insurance company would strengthen its capitalization and positively influence its business. The agency confirmed as “uaAА-” the national scale credit rating of the company.
Persha has been operating on the Ukrainian insurance market since September 2001. Its core business is car insurance using innovative IT technologies. The company is a member of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine and national insurer of international transport of goods.
Its charter capital is UAH 60 million.
Viatrans SA, registered in 1987, is a holding company. It has around 15 subsidiaries.
KYIV. Oct 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Foreign investors who buy distressed assets have shown interest in Ukraine. Improved operation of the Deposit Guarantee Fund and judicial system activity on the domestic market of distressed assets should grow, the founder of ICU Investment Group Makar Paseniuk has said.
“Some specialized investors who buy distressed assets and work with risk legislation have shown interest in Ukraine. They are ready to participate in the privatization process,” he said at the Ukrainian Financial Forum in Odesa organized by ICU.
He said that the balance sheet value of assets of insolvent banks passed to the Deposit Guarantee Fund totals some UAH 405 billion.
“It is clear their market value according to the assessments [of the Deposit Guarantee Fund] is around 24% [of the balance sheet value] and, according to assessments of people who are ready to invest, at least five or seven percentage points less. However, this is around $2 billion, which is a large sum for our country,” Paseniuk said.
He said these assets of the fund are the most realistic for sale on the Ukrainian market. Similar opportunities in the private sector are an illusion, and the privatization is not interesting for financial investors.
Commenting on other tools in Ukraine, he said restructuring of foreign commercial debt and macrostabilization yield on domestic liabilities fell from 23% to 17-18% per annum, and for eurobonds reached some 8% per annum, compared to two-digit figures earlier.
He said rates for domestic loan bonds would fall proportionally to the reduction of the refinancing rate by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and liquidity growth.
KHERSON. Oct 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kherson region this season serviced over 3.5 million tourists, according to tentative data presented by Head of Kherson Regional Administration Andriy Hordeyev at Tavrian Horizons ninth international investment forum.
“This season inbound tourist flow grew by 15% and the number of foreign tourists grew by 12%,” he said.
Hordeyev said that next year growth would continue. The official called on investors to invest in tourism.
According to the State Statistics Service, the population of Kherson region as of August 1, 2016 was 1.06 million, while Ukraine’s population (not taking into account temporarily occupied Crimea and Sevastopol) was 42.7 million.
KYIV. Oct 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Dragon Capital Investments Limited (Cyprus), part of Dragon Capital, has finalized deals to acquire stakes in East Gate Logistic LLC (Boryspil) and West Gate Logistic LLC (Stoyanka, both Kyiv region) managing the eponymous logistic complexes near Kyiv.
The company’s press service reported on Thursday that the company acquired East Gate Logistic, a class A complex located in Boryspil, from Akron Investment Central Eastern Europe II B.V., and 60% of West Gate Logistic, a class A facility located in Stoyanka, from GLD Holding GmbH. The deal values were not disclosed.
“Despite high vacancy rates across the Kyiv region’s warehousing market, the level of its saturation with quality class A properties remains low. It is therefore not surprising that both East Gate and West Gate enjoy vacancies of under 8%, while the average rate across the market is 15%… We expect to further increase their occupancy in the near future and keep improving their results,” Volodymyr Tymochko, Managing Director and Head of Private Equity at Dragon Capital, said.
Built in 2007, East Gate Logistic has 49,600 square meters of total space and a leasable area of 49,100 square meters. West Gate Logistic was built in 2008 and has 97,200 square meters of total and 96,300 square meters of leasable area.
