Ovostar Union, a leading shell egg and egg goods producer in Ukraine, increased revenue by 26.9% in 2017, to $99 million, according to an unaudited preliminary report.
According to a company report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) last year grew by 8.3%, to $26 million.
The group plans to boost egg production by 5% in 2018, to 1.75 billion eggs, dry egg products output – by 9%, to 3,550 tonnes and liquid egg products – by 12%, to 13,000 tonnes.
Ovostar Union expects that the number of laying hens this year would grow by 9%, to 7.2 million.
Currently, the group continues its investment program at the site of the Stavyschanska poultry farm, which was started in April 2014 and will be completed in 2019-2020. Upon completion of the investment project, the bird population will reach 10 million heads, egg production – 2 billion eggs a year. Now the program is completed by 60%.
In 2018, the group plans to build two bird houses, two premises for young hens and a feeding installation. According to the company’s estimates, capital investments will amount to about $15 million.
Real wages in Ukraine in January 2018 increased by 12.3% compared to January 2017, while compared to December 2017 it fell by 13.4%, the State Statistics Service has said. According to its data, the average nominal salary of full time workers in January compared with December 2017 decreased by 12.1%, in annual terms it grew by 28.4%, amounting to UAH 7,711, whereas in December it stood at UAH 8,777, in November at UAH 7,479, in October at UAH 7,377, in September at UAH 7,351, and in August at UAH 7,114.
According to statistics, the largest growth in the average salary of full time workers in January this year compared to January 2017 was observed in Dnipropetrovsk (32.7%), Vinnytsia (32.4%), Kyiv (32.2%), Zhytomyr (31.9%), Zakarpattia (31%), Lviv (29.4%), Zaporizhia (28.3%), Odesa (27.6%), Poltava (30.6%), Chernihiv (28.2%), Ivano-Frankivsk (27.7%), Cherkasy (27%), Kharkiv (26.9%), Kirovohrad (26.5%), Ternopil (26.4%), Sumy (25.6%), Chernivtsi and Volyn (25.4% each), Khmelnytsky (24.8%), Kherson (24.6%), Rivne (23.8%) regions and Kyiv City (25.6%).
The wage growth in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (excluding part of the ATO zone) was 29% and 19% respectively.
The largest level of wages in the past month was recorded in Kyiv (UAH 11,668), the lowest one in Chernihiv region (UAH 5,865).
HVG Law LLP (the Netherlands) will provide law services to national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy related to the unbundling of the company and creation of a gas transport system (GTS) operator. According to a report in the ProZorro e-procurement system, the contract worth almost UAH 17 million (VAT included) was signed by the sides on December 27, 2018.
The expected cost of the services in the amount of UAH 65.522 million was reduced at the tender with nine bidders, which are international companies.
As reported, a legal analysis must be made for the compliance of the chosen method of separation of gas transportation activities with the requirements of the EU and Ukrainian legislation regarding the independence of the GTS operator.
The services also include providing advice and recommendations in the process of separating transportation activities in order to successfully certify the future operator in accordance with the requirements of the Third Energy Package and preparing necessary documents.
It is also the responsibility of the winner of the tender to provide recommendations on the best way to transfer to the future operator of the property, contracts, IT systems, permits and employees from the point of view of legal consequences for Naftogaz and the prospect of attracting a partner to the GTS management. In addition, the winner of the tender will participate in negotiations with potential partners of the GTS.
The sales of new cars in Ukraine in February grew by 22% compared to the same month in 2017, but decreased by 12% compared to January 2018, amounting to 5,800 units, AUTO-Consulting reports. “Nevertheless, over the two months the car market of Ukraine continues to demonstrate quite an impressive growth of 31%, but the demand structure has changed dramatically,” experts say.
In February, Volkswagen, which managed to get ahead of both Toyota and Renault, selling 815 cars, ranked first.
“Moreover, another brand of VW Group, Audi, climbed to the fourth place (from the ninth in January). Both brands posted a 40% rise in sales just over a month. In such an unexpected way the “dieselgate” influenced the Ukrainian market,” AUTO–Consulting said.
According to analysts, in February it became finally clear that the demand for low cost cars among private buyers is vanishingly small due to competition on the part of used car imports.
Similar statistics on car sales was released by the Ukrautoprom association, according to which the rise in sales was 21% from February 2017, to 5,900 vehicles.
Leadership was also given to Volkswagen, which ranked first due to the sale in Ukraine of diesel cars produced in 2015.
Astarta plans to build and put into operation a storage facility of 60,000 tonnes at Narkevychy sugar factory in Khmelnytsky region by 2020, the company’s press service has reported.
According to its information, in 2017 the holding also began the development of a water treatment plant project in the Globino industrial cluster of the company, which includes sugar and soybean processing plants, as well as a bioenergy complex.
“Globino is an industrially active region of Ukraine, where a significant number of manufacturing enterprises are located, and the amount of natural resources is limited. Therefore there appeared an idea to create a full-fledged sewage treatment plant under international standards. As early as this spring, preparatory work will begin,” the press service said.
The implementation of the project will allow to halve the use of surface water, reuse part of the purified water in a closed production cycle of these enterprises, and meet international environmental requirements.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Kharkiv regions
Ukraine’s international reserves increased to $18.5 billion by the end of February from $18.443 billion at the beginning of the month, Oleh Churiy, the deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), has said.
“Today the reserves are approximately $18.5 billion, taking into account those interventions to buy foreign currency, which the NBU conducts almost daily,” he said during a monetary briefing in Kyiv.
Acting Head of the National Bank Yakiv Smolii, in turn, noted the victory of Naftogaz Ukrainy in Stockholm arbitration is although a positive factor for the dynamics of the country’s forex reserves, but the main source of their replenishment is cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other financial organizations.
“We cannot now say how Naftogaz will use the funds it has not yet received but only won in court. Therefore the continuation of cooperation with the IMF and obtaining next tranches is a prerequisite for replenishing foreign exchange reserves,” he said.
