The Kovalska Industrial and Construction Group (Kyiv) plans to increase production of flagstone under the Avenue brand and elements for landscape design by 30%, Director General of Kovalska Group Serhiy Pylypenko has said.
“The increase in flagstone production and elements of landscape design for the Avenue brand and elements for landscaping was more than 25% in 2017. In the middle of 2018, we plan to increase the production capacity by 30% thanks to strong demand last year. The amount of investment will be around EUR 5 million,” Pylypenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, he said, the company is exploring the possibility of launching production of aerated concrete.
“We are considering the launch of production of aerated concrete, which does not require a sophisticated base, but we need a separate plant for this. Our enterprises have already exhausted the opportunities for expansion. Now we can only talk about updating of existing equipment,” the director general said.
Kovalska Industrial and Construction Group was established in 2006 and it has been operating in the market of ready-mixed concrete and reinforced concrete products since 1956.
Net revenue of JSC Kyivstar in 2017 totaled UAH 16.54 billion, which is 10.6% more than in 2016.
According to a report of VEON, the parent company of the operator, Kyivstar’s revenue from provision of mobile communications services grew by 10.7%, to UAH 15.338 billion, and from provision of fixed-line communications services – by 7.6%, to UAH 1.132 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2017 grew by 18.15, accounting for UAH 9.221 billion, EBITDA margin rose by 3.5 percentage points, to 55.7%.
Capital expenses in 2017 (not including the fee for licenses) fell by 2%, totaling UAH 2.618 billion.
The number of mobile communications subscribers in 2017 grew by 1.7%, to 26.5 million. The number of fixed-line communications subscribers did not change, being 800,000 users.
In Q4 2017, revenue of the operator increased 10.7%, to UAH 4.297 billion, including UAH 3.986 billion from mobile communications (10.7% up) and UAH 285 million from fixed-line communications (5.4% up). EBITDA in Q4 2017 grew by 39.1%, to UAH 2.494 billion, EBITDA margin – by 11.8 percentage points, to 58%. Capital investment amounted to UAH 534 million (36.2% down year-over-year).
In Q4 2017, the average revenue per user (ARPU) grew by 9.1%, to UAH 49, and the minutes of use (MoU) by 4.3%, to 589 minutes.
According to the press release of the parent company, growth of revenue was driven by continued strong growth of mobile data revenue, which increased by 64.5% as a result of growing data usage, and successful marketing activities driven by the continued 3G network roll-out and data-centric tariffs. Kyivstar continued to roll out its 3G network, reaching a population coverage of 74% up from 61% in the same quarter last year.
The state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Port Authority seeks to post UAH 3.3 billion of net profit in 2018, UAH 8.3 billion of revenue and UAH 4.5 billion to pay taxes and duties to the national budget, Head of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority Raivis Veckagans has said.
“We are planning a slight increase in freight traffic, but there is a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to reduce port dues by 20% and, accordingly, to cut dividend payments from 75% to 50%, which will affect the financial plan. As for capital investment, which is planned in the amount of about UAH 4.3 billion, we will get a little extra resource, which we will send to its implementation,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the head of the authority, funds that were announced for capital investment in 2017, but not used, will be used to implement projects planned for this year.
In addition, Veckagans said that, according to data for 2017, revenue of the authority amounted to UAH 8.3 billion, profit – UAH 3.5 billion, and it paid UAH 4.8 billion to the state budget, including all taxes and duties.
“We have disbursed UAH 1.6 billion of capital investments, which is almost three times more than in 2016. This is less than it was planned: in the general plan we had UAH 3.9 billion, but since we adopted it in the middle of the year, we did not have time to implement it. Therefore, we are pleased with the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers that the financial plan for 2018 was approved as early as December 2017. I hope that we will be able to implement all plans and implement the projects this year,” Veckagans said.
Lviv’s municipal enterprise Zelene Misto (Green City) has announced a tender to design blueprints for building waste recycling plant at the stage of the feasibility study and the project.
The press service of Lviv City Council reported on Tuesday that the announcement was placed in the ProZorro e-procurement system. The approximate cost of works is UAH 4.7 million.
“The concept of this complex is based on the idea of the largest reduction in volume and residual volume of recycled wastes that will be sent for disposal,” the press service said, citing Director of municipal enterprise Zelene Misto Vadym Nozdria.
According to his forecasts, the use of manual sorting options will reduce the amount of waste to be buried by 55%.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) on March 20 will put a 25% stake in public joint-stock company Odesaoblenergo up for sale at a starting price of UAH 149.081 million.
According to a report in the Vidomosti Pryvatyzatsii newspaper, the auction will take place on the platform of the Ukrainian Exchange (Kyiv).
As reported, in August 2017, the SPF failed to sell 25% of Odesaoblenergo at a starting price of UAH 631.3 million due to a lack of bids.
Odesaoblenergo increased its net profit 7.6-fold (by UAH 59.351 million) in January-September 2017, compared to the same period in 2016, to UAH 68.314 million, net income by 31.8% (by UAH 1.336 billion), up to UAH 5.541 billion.
VS Energy Group controls about 64% of Odesaoblenergo’s shares, another 25% of the company’s shares belong to the state represented by the SPF.
A successful fight against corruption will help attract foreign investment in Ukraine, Foreign Minister of Denmark has said.
“Of course, in order to facilitate trade, it is necessary, in particular, to successfully combat corruption, so we very much hope that a specialized anti-corruption court will appear in Ukraine and if the fight against corruption is successful, it will help attract foreign investment in Ukraine,” he said at a joint news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The diplomat added that Danish investments are present in Ukraine, but very big ones.
“We are a small country and we have few resources, so we learned from our own experience how important trade is,” he added.
In turn, the Ukrainian minister said that there are more than 80 Danish companies in the country.
“There are more than 80 Danish companies in Ukraine, if I am not mistaken, I would like there were 800 of them,” Klimkin said.
