Business news from Ukraine

Reforms are necessary for Ukraine itself and its citizens, it should not be a favor to the Western partners, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has stated.
“Don’t do this for us. Reforms are needed for Ukrainians and for Ukraine … This is not some kind of favor that Ukraine should do to the West. Ukrainians should do this for themselves,” she said, speaking at the Ukrainian lunch “Ukraine on the Frontlines of a New Kind of Warfare: Lessons for the West, and Prospects for Peace” organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in the framework of the 54th Munich Security Conference. According to the official, Ukraine should initiate and carry out reforms for its citizens.

Rubizhne cardboard packaging mill in Luhansk region, one of Ukraine’s largest cardboard packaging producers, produced 17.38 million square meters of corrugated cardboard boxes in January 2018, including goods from its Trypilsky packaging plant, which is 36.2% up year-over-year.
The mills increased production of components of corrugated cardboard (cardboard and fluting) by 9.4%, to 22,810 tonnes.
The total commodity amount produced by both plants in the period in monetary terms grew by 49.6%, to UAH 419.78 million.
According to UkrPapir association, cardboard packaging production in Ukraine in January 2018 grew by 23.8% and amounted to 77.64 million square meters.

The Kharkiv international airport plans to boost passenger flow to 900,000 people in 2018, which is 12% more than in 2017 (806,100).
“According to our estimates, the bulk of the passenger flow, as in previous years, will be provided by international flights – 729,000 people. It is expected that 171,000 people will take advantage of domestic flights,” the press service of the agency Interfax-Ukraine enterprise.
The Kharkiv airport in 2017 increased passenger traffic to 806,100 people (in 2016 this figure was 599,700 people).
In January 2018, the company’s passenger flow was 59,500 people, which is 25% more than for the same period in 2017 (47,500 people).
Kharkiv airport has a runway 2,500 meters long and 50 meters wide. There are two passenger terminals with the capacity of 100 and 650 people on its territory.

Export of grain by the Nibulon agricultural company in the 2017/2018 marketing year (MY, July-June) could reach 5 million tonnes, which will slightly exceed the figure of the previous season (about 4.8 million tonnes), company CEO Oleksiy Vadatursky has said at a press conference in Kyiv.
He said that about 40% of Nibulon exports are carried out by river.
“We set the goal to annually increase the volume of river transportations by 500,000 tonnes. Last year the volume was 2.3 million tonnes with the plan being 2 million tonnes. This marketing year we plan to transport 2.5 million tonnes, of which 2.3 million tonnes have already been transported, so we will exceed the plan,” Vadatursky noted.
As reported, on February 15 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) issued a $50 million loan to Nibulon LLC to finance the expansion and modernization of the company’s grain logistics infrastructure in 2018-2019.
The financing will consist of an A loan of up to $40 million provided by the EBRD and a B loan of up to $10 million, which will be syndicated by commercial banks.
The EBRD said the loan is provided for a period of seven years.

The profit of PrivatBank in January 2018 amounted to UAH 1.105 billion, according to a press release of the bank.
“For the first month of 2018, PrivatBank received a profit of UAH 1.105 billion. Profitable work is the strategic task of the bank for the current year, in which the bank plans to earn at least UAH 4 billion profit,” the report said.
According to the reports of Ukrainian banks for 2017, PrivatBank in the corresponding period received UAH 22.966 billion of losses.
As reported, last week financial director of the bank Halyna Pakhachuk stated the loss of PrivatBank in 2017 was caused by the reduction in the pledge value of the assets received in 2016.
“Unfortunately, in 2017 we had to continue work to assess the fair value of the assets that the state acquired in 2016: large fuel filling stations, oil depots, famous Bukovel, which were transferred to state ownership at an inflated cost. The auditor evaluated their fair value and, accordingly, marked it down. It was the issue of markdown of these assets that led to the unprofitable activity of PrivatBank in 2017,” she said.
According to the banker, if to completely exclude the reserves that the bank was supposed to generate for these assets, it would have received a profit of UAH 3.6 billion over 2017.