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.
Mobile communications operator lifecell LLC in 2017 saw UAH 503.6 million of net loss compared with UAH 928.3 million of net profit in 2016, according to a report of Turkey’s Turkcell, the parent company of the operator, posted on its official website. Revenue totaled UAH 4.876 billion last year (0.8% up year-over-year).
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell by 2.2%, to UAH 1.326 billion, and EBITDA margin – by 0.8 percentage points, to 27.2%. Capital investment of the operator in 2017 fell by 41%, to UAH 1.33 billion, while a year ago the company invested UAH 2.255 billion.
The active subscribers’ base last year narrowed by 13%, to 8 million. The total number of subscribers in the operators’ network decreased 10.5%, to 11.1 million subscribers. The average revenue per user (ARPU) grew by 8%, to UAH 33.80, and ARPU of the active subscribers’ base rose by 17.5%, to UAH 47.70.
The number of minutes used by subscribers for voice data transfer services fell by 7.9% in 2017, to 129.4 minutes. In Q4 2017, net loss of lifecell soared 2.9-fold, to UAH 179.6 million, and revenue fell by 3.4%, to UAH 1.269 billion. EBITDA accounted for UAH 331.3 million (8.7% down). Capital investment in Q4 2017 totaled UAH 414.3 million (51.1% down year-over-year).
The Ukrainian government seeks to finish the implementation of a project on the high-speed train communication with the Boryspil international airport (Kyiv) in December 2018, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman wrote on his Twitter page on Friday. “It will be possible to get to the airport or to the city in 35 minutes. The price of the ticket is UAH 80-120,” he wrote.
The construction of a railway communication between Kyiv city and the airport should begin no later than June 1, the prime minister said. According to the project of Ukrzaliznytsia, which was supported by the Cabinet of Ministers, the train line is planned to be laid from the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky station through the Vydubychi station to terminal D of the Boryspil airport, according to the government’s website.
“In fact, only 4 km of the road is needed to be completed,” the press service of the government said.
“Now there is a real technical solution. We are starting to implement it. All procedural moments need to be resolved before June 1,” the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, quoting Groysman as saying.
The project will be coordinated by deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Kistion.
According to the report, 11 PESA 620m trains with 91 seats, two PESA 630m trains with 192 seats, which will transport at least 2.67 million passengers per year, are planned to be used on the line.
In turn, acting Board Chairman of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said on his Facebook page that the required amount of investment in the project is UAH 600-800 million. In particular, UAH 450 million is required for the construction of an overpass; UAH 100 million for tracks, platforms, reconstruction of the contact network; UAH 70 million for the construction of box depots and another UAH 100 million for the technical restoration of rail buses.
At the slides of the presentation presented by Kravtsov it is indicated that the project will greatly relieve the road infrastructure, reducing Kyiv’s road burden by 1,000 car and 30 bus trips per day.
As reported, Ukraine has the unrealized national project “Air Express” of railway passenger communication between Kyiv and Boryspil International Airport, construction of other infrastructure objects in Kyiv region, which is aimed at ensuring the development of transport infrastructure, strengthening the competitive positions of Ukrainian air carriers, increasing the investment and tourist attractiveness of the country.
To implement it, in 2011, a $372.3 million government secured credit agreement was signed with the Export-Import Bank of China. The CCEC was designated as the general contractor for performing turnkey construction works.
The inflationary expectations of Ukrainians in January 2018 improved by 5 points after a negative trend in December 2017 and reached 185.3 (on the scale of 0 to 200), while in general the consumer confidence index in January decreased by 0.8 points compared to the indicator a month earlier and rose by 5.8 points in annual terms, to 59.5.
“In January 2018 the consumer confidence index remained almost unchanged compared to December 2017. On the one hand, one can indicate the improvement of estimates of the current personal financial standing. From the other hand, the expectations of the country’s economic development over the next year continue to deteriorate for the second month in a row,” according to a monthly survey of GfK Ukraine.
The index of expectations of the country’s economic development over the next year declined by 4.5 points, to 54.5, while that for the next five years decreased by 0.9 points, to 70.6. At the same time, Ukrainians were optimistic about the expected changes in personal financial standing: the index rose by 1.6 points, to 57.5, the research says.
However, in general, the index of economic expectations was down by 1.3 points, to 60.9.
In January Ukrainians were also pessimistic about the national currency exchange rate for the next three months: the index of devaluation expectations rose by 1.3 points, to 167. At the same time, the index of expectations of changes in unemployment increased by 0.8 points, to 139.2, according to GfK Ukraine.
