Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko has said Ukraine-Kuwait cooperation in the energy sphere is strategic.
“Ukrainian ministries and agencies and Middle East energy resources can in the short term play a key role in solving Ukraine’s task of diversifying its energy supplies and creating a reliable system of energy security,” Rozenko said at a sitting of the Ukrainian intergovernmental commission on issues devoted to developing Ukraine-Kuwait cooperation, the deputy prime minister’s press service said. Participants of the talks discussed expanding cooperation, discussed transportation and infrastructure development. A protocol that will serve as the road map for bilateral cooperation before the next meeting was signed.
HarvEast agroholding plans to invest around $4 million in a seed plant in Donetsk region, Director General of the holding Dmytro Skorniakov has said.
“Near $3 million will be needed for launching, another $1 million for infrastructure,” he said during the signing of cooperation agreements with the seed company Maisadour in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to HarvEast, the plant will be launched in August 2018. Its capacity will be 8 tonnes per hour.
The enterprise will focus on the production of sunflower, beans (peas, lentils) and cereals (wheat, barley).
In addition, according to Skorniakov, HarvEast intends to invest almost $6 million in irrigation in the coming years, adding that the area under irrigation for growing seeds is planned to expand to 2,500 hectares.
“This year we are introducing almost 800 hectares of irrigation, and next year we are planning another 1,500 hectares. This is on the section between Berdiansk and Mariupol,” he said.
HarvEast’s core business is crop farming (growing wheat, sunflower, barley, perennial grasses, and corn) and dairy farming.
The holding was founded in 2011 on the basis of agricultural assets of Mariupol Illich Steel Works (Donetsk region).
Shareholders in HarvEast Holding are SCM and Smart-holding Group.
Estonia’s D. D. S. Consulting LLC in January 2018 purchased 85.4% of shares in Kharkiv Central Department Store (TsUM) and made a public irrevocable offer for the redemption of shares of other members of the company. According to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the Estonian company announced the buyout offer on February 21. The proposed purchase price of the shares is UAH 0.67 with the nominal value being UAH 0.18.
The central department store in Kharkiv was founded in 1933. In 1994 it was transformed into an open joint-stock company.
The net income of PJSC Kharkiv Central Department Store in 2016 increased by 72% compared to 2015 and amounted to UAH 1.7 million, while its net loss in the same period increased by 32%, to UAH 1.6 million. According to the state cadaster, the area under the central department store is 0.2 hectares.
According to the state register, the owner of 85% of TsUM in 2010-2017 was Production and Commercial Firm Warrant LLC. As of February 2018, the ultimate beneficiary of the company is Dmytro Davydenko.
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
The owner of the Ukrlandfarming agricultural holding and former owner of VAB Bank and Bank Financial Initiative Oleh Bakhmatiuk has confirmed his readiness to repay UAH 19 billion of debts of these banks to the state in the full amount if the debts are restructured for 10 years at low rate. He has accused the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) of the unwillingness to peacefully settle the dispute.
“I am ready to pay all the debts of VAB bank and Bank Financial Initiative in full to the state, but the NBU even does not want to come to the negotiating table,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Bakhmatiuk pointed out his readiness to provide a business model for repayment of these UAH 19 billion of debts, recalling that Ukrlandfarming continues generating the turnover of about $1 billion per year, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are about $200 million, and the potential value of the agricultural holding may be about $2 billion.
Previously American privately held global corporation Cargill has withdrawn from among the shareholders of Ukrainian-based UkrLandFarming (ULF) agrarian holding, according to a ULF financial report for 2016. Cargill’s subsidiary, Cargill Financial Services International Inc. by the end of 2015, had held 1,668,749 ULF shares, or 5% of the total number. The remaining 95%, or 31,706,245 shares, were held by UK-based Avonex Limited. By the end of 2016, the number of shares owned by Avonex Limited had not changed, whereas the package held by Cargill was transferred to Cyprus-based Quickcom Limited’s ownership. The report says that the sole owner of Avonex Limited and Quickcom Limited is Oleh Bakhmatiuk.
Cargill acquired a 5% stake in ULF early in 2014 for $200 million. Based on the sum of the deal, the total value of the holding was assessed at $4 billion.
Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan plans to announce the start of the Hyperloop project in Ukraine. The announcement entitled “Hyperloop in Ukraine” appeared on the website of the ministry on Wednesday without giving further details. The minister wrote on his Facebook page “Really. Inception.” Meanwhile, Ukraine is not along the countries candidates for this project. The closest country that could participate in the project is Poland.
The press service of the ministry denied giving any comments to Interfax-Ukraine. Interfax-Ukraine also sent a request to Hyperloop. Hyperloop is a project of vacuum train proposed in 2012-2013 by U.S. venture capitalist Elon Musk. At present, the project has not been implemented.
