KYIV. March 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) could start the privatization of the remaining state owned controlling stakes in six regional energy supply companies with the sale of the most prepared and those having an attractive business profile, namely Ternopiloblenergo and Khmelnytskyoblenergo, SPF Head Ihor Bilous has said.
“There is an idea to split the six power companies into three groups according to their degree of readiness and problematicity,” he told reporters.
The fund head said that the second stage could include tenders for the sale of Kharkivoblenergo and Mykolaivoblenergo, the third one – Cherkasyoblenergo and Zaporizhiaoblenergo.
Bilous noted that in Ternopil and Khmelnytsky regions the structure of customers of energy supply companies the significant share is occupied by more attractive clients in the current conditions – households, small and medium businesses. According to him, the energy supply companies are relatively small and are not so expensive, which also creates conditions for the formation of competition at the tenders and their successful sale.
He added that international consultants, to improve the efficiency of tenders, offered holding them in early autumn, while the summer season is characterized by a low investment activity.
KYIV. March 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Odesa Port-Side Plant has reported UAH 210.88 million in net profit in 2015 compared to UAH 270.473 million in net loss a year ago.
The company said that its total assets decreased by 62% in 2015, to UAH 3.352 billion, while fixed assets increased by 3.7%, to UAH 1.114 billion.
Total bills receivable last year decreased by 55%, to UAH 924.93 million. Current liabilities totaled UAH 1.058 billion, a decline of 82.1% year-over-year. The plant did not have long-term liabilities.
The number of employees expanded from 3,938 to 3,948 people.
State-owned Odesa Port-Side Plant produces chemical products and transships ammonia to vessels.
KYIV. March 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Interchem double liability company (Odesa) took part in the largest pharmaceutical exhibition in Eastern Africa in Kenya, Interchem Head Anatoliy Reder has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“I’ve managed to have a fruitful talk with top managers of Kenya’s registration service. These are skilled specialists interested in Ukraine manufacturers’ entrance to the local pharmaceutical market. Considering Ukraine as a part of Europe they hope that the product that we will be able to supply will be of high quality. It will meet European requirements, but it would be cheaper than European alternative products,” Reder said.
He said that the African pharmaceutical market is complicated due to types of distribution, and the Kenyan market is rather weak.
“Tentatively it is annually estimated at some $250 million. The number of the population is comparable with Ukraine. Some $450 million of donor funds is spent on fighting malaria and HIV. The products sold in Kenya have small margins. This means that business is intricate. Some 95% of importers on the Kenyan market are from India. They always are heading to super low prices and unsophisticated products. The market is developing, and shares similar trends with our market,” he said.
He said that after the exhibition Interchem decided to study the issue of entering the African pharmaceutical market.
Interchem double liability company is one of the leading Ukrainian manufacturers of medicine and pharmaceutical substances. It has a full production cycle from the design and synthesis of new biologically active molecules, and the industrial production of pharmaceutical substances, to the production of medicines and sales of products to end consumers.
The industrial community has been working to introduce energy efficiency and energy saving programs in Ukraine on a large-scale basis. The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) considers this to be one of the main factors of ensuring the competitiveness of Ukrainian industry and commodities in the European and other international markets. Entrepreneurs and industrialists cooperate in this area with parliamentarians, local authorities, public agencies, and financial institutions.
The signing of a Memorandum of cooperation between the ULIE and the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine (SAEE), which was also joined by Ukrgasbank, has marked a milestone in this activity and become the logical continuation of cooperation between these organizations.
“The Memorandum is not a document of declaration, but the continuation of fruitful work, which began two years ago. We need to consolidate efforts, mainly engage Ukrainian producers in energy efficiency programs. This will facilitate the growth of the domestic market of respective materials and equipment, the creation of new jobs and an increase in the revenue of the budgets of all levels,” SAEE head Serhiy Savchuk said.
He thanked the ULIE for a proactive attitude to energy efficiency issues, noting that it is the domestic industrialists and entrepreneurs who form a point of growth for the Ukrainian economy.
A joint action plan, which will involve not only national government agencies, but also regional administrations and local government agencies, will be elaborated at the ULIE’s suggestion. The plan will propose detailed measures for 2016.
“In particular, it should include work to improve the regulatory framework, ease access to loans, pursue an effective policy in energy efficiency and introduce appropriate incentives for enterprises,” ULIE President and Chairman of the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs Anatoliy Kinakh said.
The Memorandum stipulates that the parties should be engaged in the development and implementation of energy efficiency programs and hold a series of joint public events.
The creation of regional centers that will popularize and advise condominiums, construction firms and households on the efficient use of energy resources, renewable energy sources and alternative types of fuel is also seen as an effective tool.
Ukrgasbank, which in 2015 started focusing on issuing loans under energy saving projects, will in turn continue this activity in future. And, as was proposed by partners from the business circles, the bank will also consider ways to improve lending conditions in this area.
Non-governmental organizations, businesses, analytical and research institutions, activists are joining hands to find ways to bring the Ukrainian economy out of crisis and develop a common, effective strategy for the country’s development.
The National Business Forum, co-organized by influential civic and business associations – the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs, the Ukrainian Business Initiative, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, the Nova Kraina civil platform, and others, will take place at NSC Olimpiyskiy Complex in Kyiv on March 18. Young, active organizations, which have been established after the Revolution of Dignity, joined the large associations.
The latter stress that Ukraine has failed in the past years to elaborate its strategy for development; reforms in every sphere of social life are needed. The country’s economy is seen by international experts as weak and corrupt, its industrial potential has weakened, citizens’ buying capacity is on the decline, and there is no effective plan to overcome the crisis. The activists also consider that the government’s decision to sell strategic industrial and energy facilities amid the crisis is surprising, as their financial assessment could hardly be adequate.
“We’ve seen the business sector’s readiness to put off own corporate interests, get united with the public sector and start the formation of a common ‘corridor’ of national interests. It’s not about personalities; it’s about concrete tasks, terms and algorithms of their implementation. These are our priorities and what bring us to a discussion platform, which began to work long ago and will not end with the Forum on March 18,” co-founder of the Ukraine Is Me (uais.me) civil movement Serhiy Ivanov said.
In his words, the country is in dire need of working out common rules of the game, forming a transparent financial system, adopting liberal tax reform, and taking measures to strengthen the hryvnia.
Therefore, the NGOs call on everyone to join the Forum by sending their proposals and ideas.
“The process when society, businesses and think tanks get united is the first step towards a new, civilized form of pursuing the policy in the country,” Nova Kraina co-founder Vladyslav Olenchenko said. “The corporate sector cannot stand apart when public management is in crisis ‒ it has substantial resources and achievements it would like to share and is ready to actively cooperate for the development of the country.”
It should be mentioned that the Forum will bring together about two hundred business associations, industrial and business organizations, NGOs, analytical and research centers.
Their proposals will form the basis for a plan of urgent measures to overcome the social and economic crisis and draw up a strategy for the country’s further development and for an open joint statement on the situation in the country and ways to end the crisis. Members of the public and business structures say they are sure that the developed plan should be used as the basis for the government’s action program for the next two years.
Senior government officials, leaders of parliamentary factions, civil society leaders and representatives of the international community have been invited to the Forum.
