KYIV. Aug 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Agricom Group has expanded a land bank by 10,000 ha, to 40,000 ha thanks to the acquisition of a cluster on the border of Rivne and Zhytomyr regions.
The company said in a press release that the enterprises of the new cluster will plant wheat, soybeans and rapeseeds.
“This year we will start working – in autumn the fields will be planted with winter crops. Next phase is building the storage and processing capacities on the territory of the cluster,” Agricom Group Executive Director Petro Melnyk said.
Аgricom Group produces and distributes food made of grain at own production base. It unites agricultural, processing and trade enterprises.
KYIV. Aug 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kherson State Plant Pallada, part of Ukroboronprom state concern, will build a next generation floating dock with a capacity of 7,100 tonnes under the order of Cypriot Multimarine Shipyards Ltd. and supply it to the customer.
A source in the defense sector told Interfax-Ukraine a contract with the Cypriot company was signed a few days ago. The amount of the contract has not been made public, the dock is to be delivered to the customer in 2017.
The new dock, which will be built under the supervision of the American Bureau of Shipping, will be operated by Multimarine Shipyards Ltd in the port of Limassol (Cyprus) and will be able to dock ships and floating structures used in the development of the Mediterranean Sea shelf with a docking weight of up to 7,100 tonnes and a docking draft of up to 6.3 meters.
Kherson State Plant Pallada is currently the world’s only shipyard that specializes in building next generation composite floating docks for maintenance of civil and naval ships. The warranty period of the equipment it makes is 50 years. Among the company’s customers are Japan, South Korea, Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Algeria, Croatia, France, and South Africa.
KYIV. Aug 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – British-based procurement agency Crown Agents has stated the saving of more than 45% or UAH 500 million in procurement of medicines on children’s and adult oncology programs for the funds of the 2015 national budget compared to purchases in 2014.
“Thanks to the efficient procedure and clear tender processes more than 90% of items were purchased for a lower price compared to 2014, in some cases the saving exceeded 80%. This resulted in the saving of more than 45% or about UAH 500 million of budget funds compared to 2014 under the procurement programs for adult and pediatric oncology,” Crown Agents told Interfax-Ukraine.
Crown Agents noted the international organization expects the implementation of supplies for a total of $3.6 million under these programs by the end of August. Thus, the total volume of shipments under the programs will amount to 80% of medicines for adult oncology and 58% for child programs.
As of mid-August, Crown Agents had delivered more than 75% of medicines in the framework of centralized purchases for adult oncology programs, 38% of medicines for children, as well as 38% of purchased drugs “which are in Ukraine but need approval of the necessary documentation by the Health Ministry for delivery to hospitals.”
KYIV. Aug 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (Mykolaiv), part of Smart Maritime Group (SMG) belonging to Smart-holding of Vadim Novinsky, has won two tenders for repairs of marine equipment for Ukrainian military, according to SMG’s press service.
According to a report on SMG’s website, in particular, Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard was determined the winner in the tender announced by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine for repairs of the Mykolaiv coast guard ship (205P project).
Seven companies took part in the tender.
During repairs the plant will carry out cleaning, painting, replace metal, repair shaft lines, steerage, bottom reinforcement, replace galvanic-action protectors, perform mechanical work.
The planned period of repairs is 40 days.
The ship will arrive at the plant in the coming days, the statement said.
According to the press service, Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard was also determined the winner in the tender to repair the Netishyn diving ship of the Ukrainian Navy (based in Ochakiv).
Two companies participated in the tender.
KYIV. Aug 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Astarta agro-industrial holding saw a 3.3-fold rise in net profit in January-June 2016 year-over-year, totaling EUR 75.2 million, according to a company report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
Consolidated revenue grew by 17%, to EUR 148 million, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 23%, to EUR 109 million and gross profit – by 1.7%, to EUR 95.6 million.
The share of exports of total revenue was 50%. Net debt as of June 30, 2016 fell by 30%, to EUR 144 million. Net debt/EBITDA ratio was 1.
Net profit soared by 3.9 times in the national currency, to UAH 2.14 billion, revenue – by 40%, to UAH 4.2 billion and gross profit – by 21.5%, to UAH 2.7 billion.
Sugar revenue grew by 2%, to EUR 60 million (41% of consolidated revenue). Out of 140,000 tonnes of sugar sold almost 20,000 was exported.
Crops revenue grew by 67%, to EUR 35 million (24% of consolidated revenue). Over 201,000 tonnes were sold and 86% of it was exported.
Soybean crushing segment revenue increased by 23%, to EUR 38 million (26% of consolidated revenue).
Milk segment brought 8% of consolidated revenue to the company (EUR 12 million).
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares and dairy farms. The holding also has a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).
KYIV. Aug 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s State Agency of Forest Resources has ordered regional departments and forestry offices to publish full information on the planned forest cutting and the register of forest cutting tickets.
According to a posting on the agency’s website, the order is given in an agency’s letter dated August 8, 2016.
In addition, the agency ordered to put all timber up for sale at auctions.
“After auctions regional departments are obliged to post production programs of forest offices on their websites: the measures are required to cover the needs of Ukrainian timber processors,” acting head of the agency Khrystyna Yushkevych said.
She said that she is waiting for counter-moves from timber processors with volumes of timber bought and processed by them made public.
The European Business Association (EBA) welcomed these decisions of the agency.
“In the EBA appeals and at the meetings with senior officials we repeatedly paid attention to ongoing violations of the existing Regulations of sale of unprocessed timber, namely putting up incomplete amount of unprocessed timber at the auction trades,” the EBA said on its website.
