KYIV. July 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tobacco products, 2016 increased shipments of cigarettes in Ukraine by 17.4% in April-June 2016 compared to the same period of 2015, to 5.95 billion pieces.
PMI said, with reference to a quarterly report by A.C.Nielsen sociological marketing company (the United States), that in January-June 2016 the company’s shipments of cigarettes grew by 19.8%, to 11.6 billion pieces.
The Ukrainian market of cigarettes grew by 2.6% in Q2 2016, to 19.4 billion units and in H1 2016 – by 9.1%, to 36.7 billion units.
The share of PMI in the Ukrainian tobacco market in H1 2016 decreased by 1.2 percentage points, to 30.5%, while it grew by 0.3 percentage points in Q2 2016, to 31.2%.
The decline in the share of Marlboro and Parliament brands in January-June 2016 was 1.2 percentage points and 0.2 percentage points, to 3.2% and 2.8% respectively. The growth in the share of the Bond Street brand is estimated at 2.4 percentage points, to 10.4%.
The total market growth was principally driven by a lower estimated prevalence of illicit trade, Philip Morris said.
Philip Morris International is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tobacco products. It produces cigarettes at more than 50 factories, sells them in 160 countries.
The company has been operating in Ukraine for more than 15 years. It manufactures products at the factory in Kharkiv region.
KYIV. July 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The newly created Ukrainian airline Anda Air, which plans to perform charter flights, has received its first aircraft McDonnell Douglas MD-83.
Company co-founder Serhiy Shamenko told Interfax-Ukraine the aircraft arrived at Kyiv Airport on July 19.
Speaking about plans for the first flights, he said there are such plans, however the company needs to perform a number of procedures related to certification of the airline, perform a demo flight.
“We hope that won’t take much time, because we have already done all that is necessary, we were just waiting for the plane. We hope we will be able to make the first flight within the next 10-15 days if there are no problems,” he said.
In terms of destinations, according to him, Bulgaria will be first, the company also plans to operate flights to Albania, Georgia.
As reported, Anda Air Airline was registered in Kyiv at the end of 2015. It was founded by ex-head of Dart Airline Serhiy Shamenko and Heorhiy Avanesov. Shamenko is also the head of Anda Air.
KYIV. July 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) –The pilot project of marriages registered on a simplified manner within one day will start working in six Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kherson, Mariupol of Donetsk region and Severodonetsk of Luhansk region, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said.
“We are giving rise to a pilot project that will allow Ukrainian citizens to register their marriages during one day without bureaucracy, queues and any remnants of the Soviet Unoin, in particular, 30 days standby for marriage registration,” Petrenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
Petrenko noted that the project will be carried out in Mariupol and Severodonetsk so that the IDPs from the occupied territories could receive the Ukrainian legal documents during one day period, as well as Ukrainian soldiers could quickly get married at the place of their military units and formations dislocation.
This pilot project will be implemented in Kherson in order to facilitate the passage of the relevant procedures and documents for Ukrainian citizens from the occupied Crimea. Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv are chosen as major tourist cities, where many people may want to use this service.
The minister stressed that the provided innovation will remove the need to contact the Civil Registry Office several times, which are planned to be abolished in the course of time. Organization of the solemn part of marriage registration will be provided by the local authorities, public utilities or by state-owned enterprises working with them. Funds gathered for these services will go to local budgets.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice plans to transfer the function of civil registration to local authorities next year and within the framework of this project the minister wants to see how they will cope with this job.
Speaking about the divorce procedure, the head of the Justice Ministry said that the government intends to simplify the procedure for those cases when there is a mutual consent of both spouses and there are no unresolved disputes between them.
Petrenko said married couples who today want to get divorced must come to the Civil Registry Office three times: at first, to apply, and then to confirm their intention after 30 days, and only then come together to take the certificate of divorce.
Petrenko pointed out that the state will not hastily simplify the divorce procedure, introduce the possibility of breaking a marriage unilaterally in cases when there is no final decision of both sides to dissolve a marriage. The state should provide enough time and an opportunity to revise this decision, since the family is the basis of the Ukrainian society, and, if there is a chance for the preservation of a marriage, it should be provided.
KYIV. July 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia has announced tenders via the ProZorro procurement system for a total of 100 hydraulic fracturing operations to intensify natural gas production, duplicating a tender for the same 100 operations blocked in court.
According to the documentation, the expected value of services on each tender is UAH 135 million. The term of work is 12 months.
Hydraulic fracturing is to be carried out on the fields managed by Shebelynka and Poltava gas production directorates at a depth of 2,800-5,000 meters. The scheduled time for conventional hydraulic fracturing is three days per operation, and that for deep wells on Shebelynka field (5,700 meters) four days per area.
Bids for participation in the tenders are accepted from July 13 to July 20, from July 14 to July 21, from July 20 to July 27, and from July 21 to July 28.
As reported, nine companies submitted applications for participation in the first tender of Ukrgazvydobuvannia to conduct 100 hydraulic fracturing operations in 2016-2017. Six foreign companies are among the participants, including the world’s leading Halliburton Ukraine, Schlumberger Services, Weatherford.
KYIV. July 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The supervisory council of PJSC Zaporizhvohnetryv, Ukraine’s largest enterprise for production of refractories, part of Metinvest Group, has given preliminary consent to sign a contract with Minmetals Japan Corp. (Japan) for the supply of raw materials, namely magnesite and graphite, in 2016 for a total of UAH 142.5 million.
According to official information from the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, the supervisory council made the corresponding decision on July 15 this year.
Details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
It is permitted to sign a contract for the amount not exceeding 25% of the cost of the company’s assets according to the latest annual financial report, which is UAH 570.096 million. The ratio of the marginal cost of the transaction to the value of Zaporizhvohnetryv assets, according to the most recent annual financial statements, is 24.99579%.
Zaporizhvohnetryv in 2015 saw net income grow by 54.1% compared to 2014, to UAH 1.002 billion, while its net loss decreased by 67.4%, to UAH 21.031 million, pretax loss by 70%, to UAH 22.959 million from UAH 76.159 million.
Its retained earnings at the end of last year amounted to UAH 54.855 million.
KYIV. July 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The total profit of state companies in Ukraine in 2016 is expected to exceed UAH 20 billion, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Yulia Kovaliv has stated.
“Today we have financial plans for most state-owned enterprises, and we expect that the losses of the companies will reduce significantly. In fact, as for fiscal plans on the top 50 companies – only two companies presented unprofitable fiscal plans. Thus, we expect the aggregate profit of state companies will be more than UAH 20 billion,” she said at a briefing.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the cumulative loss of the top 100 state-owned enterprises declined from UAH 119 billion in 2014 to UAH 42.6 billion in 2015: the total loss of loss-making enterprises decreased from UAH 124.5 billion to UAH 56.4 billion, while the total profit of profitable enterprises rose to UAH 13.8 billion from UAH 5.5 billion respectively.
Kovaliv also reported this year the credit indebtedness of state enterprises is expected to fall by almost 5%
According to the ministry, the most profitable state-owned enterprises in 2015 were Ukrenergo, Ukrhydroenergo, Energoatom, Turboatom and the Ukrainian Authority of Sea Ports.
