Odesa’s business court of appeals has ruled in favor of BIIR Property LLC (Odesa), a subsidiary of Denmark’s engineering company BIIR, in dispute with Megas-Bud LLC over the ownership right to the building of an office located at 3B, Prymorska Street in Odesa. “The uniqueness of the lawsuit is that we won it in Odessa. In my country this lawsuit would not have existed at all, and here we were fighting not only with the organization that tried to take away the building from us, but also with representatives of the National Police and Prosecutor’s Office who, in our opinion, violated the law. We will continue to insist on the lawsuit until we find an acceptable solution,” the head of the company, Thomas Sillesen, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
He said that BIIR Property appealed to the prosecutor’s office about violations by officials of the National Police and the prosecutor’s office. According to the register of court rulings, Megas-Bud LLC lost ownership right to the administrative building located at 3B, Prymorska Street in Odesa as a result of non-payment of a mortgage loan of $950,000. Due to the transfer of the ownership right to the building from one bank to another and signing the sale and purchase contract, Prime Odesa LLC became its owner, from which BIIR Property acquired the facility in March 2017.
However, according to the lawsuit, Megas Bud LLC decided to file a claim to court, referring to the fact that Prime Odesa took possession of the building by fraud.
BIIR lawyer Oleksiy Lebedev said that the business court brought in the company as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, and also decided to arrest the building, which, according to BIIR, was unreasonable and unlawful. In addition, the arrest was also imposed on the building in criminal proceedings. According to the lawyer, the business court decided to invalidate the transaction, according to which Prime Odesa purchased the building, and remove it from BIIR. The court of appeal, when re-hearing the lawsuit, declared the building as the property of BIIR.
“We appealed to the Supreme Council of Justice with complaints about the judges who unlawfully seized the building. The head of the High Council of Justice personally became interested in this lawsuit,” Sillesen said. According to him, the company began operations in Odesa in 2014, after the forced relocation from Luhansk. The staff is about 100 people, but the company plans its expansion up to 500 people in the next three or four years, which was the reason for buying a building in Odesa.
BIIR (Aarhus, Denmark) was founded in 2008. It provides services for the designing and development of projects of “lean” engineering, in particular, wind power plants. OOO BIIR Property (Odesa) is engaged in the rental of real estate. The owner of the LLC is the Danish J.I.T LLC with the charter capital is UAH 13.5 million.
Megas-Bud LLC was registered in 2007. According to the public register, its co-owner (50%) is ex-deputy of the Odesa City Council Valentyn Skoblenko. The core business of the LLC is construction of buildings. The charter capital of the enterprise is UAH 900,000.
The net profit of PJSC Agrarian Fund in 2017 almost doubled compared to 2016, to UAH 94.8 million, according to the company’s website.
According to information, last year the income of the Agrarian Fund doubled, to UAH 4.3 billion. At the same time, the company paid UAH 949 million of taxes, dividends amounted to UAH 24.4 million.
Last year the company sold 616,100 tonnes of grain, 248,700 tonnes of flour, of which 19,000 tonnes under export contracts, while increasing its share in the Ukrainian flour market to 13% from 12.2%.
The Agrarian Fund sold flour both in wholesale and retail batches, in particular, in trade networks under its own brand.
In addition, the company last year began selling mineral fertilizers. In 2017 some 245,400 tonnes of mineral fertilizers were purchased with a total cost of UAH 1.88 billion, of which 61,300 tonnes were supplied to agricultural producers.
PJSC Agrarian Fund was established by a government decree in the spring of 2013.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank Group has announced the launch of a new five-year advisory program aimed at developing the dairy industry in Ukraine.
“The five-year project, implemented in partnership with the Austrian government, is expected to help 40,000 small- and medium-scale dairy farmers access financing, boost production, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and gain access to export markets. As well as supporting the development of dairy cooperatives, it will help farmers implement climate-smart, sustainable farming practices that meet global requirements,” reads a press release from the IFC.
“Ukraine has the potential to become a low-cost producer of high-quality milk. Our new advisory program will help bring in the right expertise, skills and technology, which will help crowd-in more private investment, unlock the industry’s potential, and enable the country to become a global dairy player,” Jason Pellmar, IFC Regional Head for Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus, said.
Investing in the modernization, growth, and efficiency of the industry would also enable Ukraine to double its milk production by 2030, Pellmar added.
In the longer term, the IFC expects the advisory initiative to help bring in new investment. A one million tonne increase in production could create additional investment opportunities, estimated at about $1 billion.
Ukraine and Saudi Arabia are working out a scheme for promising industrial cooperation under the program of the new An-132 light multi-purpose aircraft with a payload capacity of 9.2 tonnes, which was designed by the Kyiv-based Antonov State Enterprise and which will be mass-produced on the territory of the Saudi customer.
According to Antonov’s press service, the plans of industrial cooperation agreed upon by the parties, at the initial stage of the An-132 program, are stipulated in a memorandum of understanding signed by the enterprise with Saudi Arabia’s Taqnia Aeronautics and WAHAJ as part of the 4th AFED 2018 defense exhibition, which is taking place in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) from February 25 to March 3.
Taqnia Aeronautics acts as a division of the Saudi Technology Development and Investment Company, and WAHAJ is a subsidiary of the Saudi International Petrochemical Company (SIPCHEM).
According to the agreement of the parties, it is planned that at the initial stage of production the first batch of An-132s will be built at the facilities of the Antonov State Enterprise in cooperation with Saudi partners.
At the same time, Antonov will act as the main executor of the work, whereas Taqnia and WAHAJ will produce units and elements in accordance with a cooperation scheme. In particular, WAHAJ will produce chassis and equipment for the aircraft.
“Subsequent stages envisage the deepening of cooperation in the production of Antonov aircraft based on the strategic plan for the creation of production facilities in Saudi Arabia,” the report says.
The revenues of the national budget of Ukraine in February 2018 amounted to UAH 50.7 billion, which is UAH 13.967 billion, or 21.6% less than the planned figures, while revenues for the first two months of 2018 reached UAH 105.887 billion, which is UAH 12.386 billion, or 10.5%, less than the target.
According to data on the website of the State Treasury Service, compared to February 2017 national budget revenues for the past month increased by UAH 8.226 billion or 19.4%, while revenues in January-February 2018 were up by UAH 3.968 billion, or 3.9%.
Tax revenues for the two months of 2018 decreased by 6.2% compared to the same period in 2017, to UAH 66.877 billion, while customs revenues rose by 24.8%, to UAH 48.52 billion. At the same time, customs revenues in January-February 2018 exceeded the target by 2.7%.
In February tax revenues amounted to UAH 31.888 billion, which is 7.4% lower than the plan. Customs revenues in the past month grew by 13.3% compared to February last year, to UAH 23.398 billion.
In general, the February plan of the State Fiscal Service was 21.3%, or UAH 11.842 billion, underfulfilled, while compared to February last year the rise was UAH 5.659 billion, or 14.8%.
