KYIV. Oct 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrposhta intends to submit a bill permitting the company to open current and deposit postal accounts for clients and issue payment cards, using which one can buy goods and pay for utility services, Ukrposhta Director General Ihor Smeliansky has said.
“This concerns the expansion of financial services of Ukrposhta via amending the law on postal service. The amendments would permit the company to open deposit and current accounts, pay for utilities, issue payment cards and provide encashment services. Ukrposhta would not issue credits,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
He said that the initiative would permit Ukrposhta to provide financial services to 30-40% of Ukrainian population who does not have access to them now due to remoteness of bank departments.
“If Ukrposhta is not permitted to do this, it would lose large revenue. This would finally result in large optimization of expenses or optimization of the network,” Smeliansky said.
It is proposed to create an alternative to bank accounts – postal accounts.
“The bill includes a new notion “postal accounts.” It is new for Ukraine, but it is ordinary international practice,” he said.
He added that Ukrposhta will use cards of the Prostir national payment system designed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Ukrposhta wants to design mobile applications and a website for online purchases.
Ukrposhta is managed by Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry.
KYIV. Oct 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB, Kyiv) has bought receivables for a credit issued by bank Forum where Chuhuyiv Butter Factory (Kharkiv region) was used as collateral.
The bank said that at the initial stage of construction the owner of the company raised a loan from FUIB using property as collateral and a loan from bank Forum secured by some equipment of the plant.
Chuhuyiv Butter Factory was launched in 2015. By that moment bank Forum was removed from the market.
“FUIB as the only investor had the entire burden to finance the company – the factory that depends on seasonal factors and requires annual financial investment to support production cycle,” the bank said.
Late September FUIB bought the credit of bank Forum at an open tender held by the Individuals Deposit Guarantee Fund for UAH 158.18 million.
KYIV. Oct 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – French group AgroGeneration with assets in Ukraine in January-June 2016 posted EUR 233,000 of net profit against a net loss of EUR 5.41 million in the same period of 2015.
According to a company report, its sales revenues increased by 24%, to EUR 3.83 million, reflecting an increase in agricultural stocks at the end of the reporting period.
The company’s gross profit at the end of the first half of 2016 decreased by 26%, to EUR 8.77 million, operating profit by 33%, to EUR 4.12 million. EBITDA as of June 30 amounted to EUR 5.8 million, which is 30.6% less than on the same date in 2015.
The group’s net debt at the end of the first half of 2016 amounted to EUR 44.8 million against EUR46.3 million as of June 30, 2015.
As reported, French group AgroGeneration was founded in 2007. It specializes in growing grains and oilseeds. In Ukraine the group currently cultivates about 120,000 hectares of land.
In October 2013 AgroGeneration completed its merger with Ukrainian agricultural company Harmelia.
KYIV. Oct 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and the U.S. are renewing cooperation in fulfilling the NASA contract to provide space equipment services (CRS) for the International Space Station. The modernized rocket booster of the medium class Antares launched from a U.S. flight facility on Monday.
The information center of the state-run Yangel Pivdenne Design Bureau (Dnipropetrovsk) said the Antares rocket with Cygnus space transporter on Tuesday, October 18 blasted off from an island off the coast of Virginia at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
The Cygnus transporter will deliver around 2.4 tons of useful gear: provisions, food and scientific equipment to the International Space Station (ISS). It will also utilize waste from the orbiting laboratory.
Tuesday’s launch was the sixth mission to deliver cargo to the ISS by Orbital ATK, a company contracted by NASA to ferry cargo to the ISS through 2018. At least five more launches are scheduled before then, and six more from 2019 to 2024.
Ukraine and the U.S. continue negotiations on cooperation in rocket propulsion engine production.
KYIV. Oct 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine LLC (Metro C&C, Kyiv) is mulling investment in local production of meat and dairy food aiming to boost its market share, Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine Offer Management Director Adrian Ariciu has said.
“We are first interested in those items where we can boost the market share. Among the most interesting segments for Metro C&C are dairy and meat products. We are seriously studying this market. We plan to invest in it,” he said at the Retailers CEO Summit: “It’s Time for Local Brand Breakthrough” in Kyiv.
Ariciu said that this is vertical integration, purchase of local companies that would produce goods only for Metro C&C.
“For some items today it is 50% cheaper produce goods in Ukraine than in China. We are mulling the opportunities for investing into local production – both acquisition of business and long-term leasing. We are interested in fresh food and non-foods,” he said.
Ariciu said that 42% of all food on Metro C&C’s shelves is made in Ukraine. He said that this share is not enough and could be increased. He also said that the company changed the imports structure in the past several years. The share of Russian goods fell from 12% to almost a zero in the past two years. The company had to replace some items imposed from Italy by cheaper goods from Poland.
Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine LLC was founded in 2003.
It unites 23 Metro shopping centers and three Beri-Vezi wholesale centers in Ukraine.
KYIV. Oct 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Energy Efficiency Fund will start work in April 2017, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Services Hennadiy Zubko has said.
“First of all, we have the task by the end of the year [2016] to adopt legislative framework for the fund. We believe the fund can start absolutely active operations from April 1, 2017 when the heating season is over,” Zubko said at the forum “Energy Independence. Establishing Energy Efficiency Fund” in Kyiv.
According to him, the draft law on the Energy Efficiency Fund has been developed and is now to be considered and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In addition, the deputy premier emphasized the importance of passing bills by the Ukrainian parliament on housing and utilities services, on the commercial accounting of housing and utility services and on the energy efficiency of buildings that are needed to run the fund.
According to Zubko, the bill on the energy fund will be constantly monitored by international partners, including representatives of the European Union and the government of Germany, which will participate in financing the fund.
