KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia, a large brewery in Ukraine, has received a license form Heineken Concern to produce Czech beer Krušovice and will start its production early June.
“This year we received a license from Heineken Concern to produce Krušovice and in a month will start producing this famous Czech beer,” the co-owner of Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia Andriy Matsola said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that usually it takes three or five years to receive the beer production license from Heineken. Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia started negotiations with Heineken in 2012 and at the end of 2015 and early 2016 the brewery launched Heinekel beer production in Ukraine under the license.
“The vice president of Heineken personally flied [to Ukraine] to inspect. The whole structure was inspected: from the head office, retail staff, atmosphere and policy of the company to tests of production facilities. In 2015, Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia was the fourth company in the world that received this license from Heineken, not being in ownership of the concern,” Matsola said.
He said that Heineken does not plant to enter the Ukrainian market.
Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia intends to launch production of hard lemonade at a plant in Radomyshl and enter the cider segment.
“Last year we bought equipment from Germany’s KHS. Now we will bottle our products in 0.44 liter and 0.5 liter cans. The canned beer market in Ukraine is only 6% of the total volume. We assess our market share at 10%, as we are working in the upper mainstream and premium class. We wanted to install a can line a long time ago, but earlier this project was loss-making. Now it is time to realize it,” he said.
Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia was created in 2004. It manages two breweries with a total capacity of 2.4 million hectoliters of beer per year in Lviv and Radomyshl (Zhytomyr region).
KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Arricano Real Estate Plc (Cyprus), a managing company and developer of some shopping malls in Ukraine, saw $23.493 million in net profit in 2016 compared to $20.379 million of net loss in 2015.
According to an annual report of the company posted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Wednesday, This turnaround was due to the $11.5 million increase in the property valuation, in addition to the $11 million reduction in operating expenses and the $18.4 million fall in finance costs all contributing towards this improved figure.
Arricano said that in 2016 recurring revenues increased by 13.3%, to $23.1 million (2015: $20.4 million).
Total comprehensive profit for the year was $21.13 million compared to $58.604 million of total comprehensive loss in 2015.
According to the report, the portfolio of assets was externally and independently valued as at December 31, 2016 by Expandia LLC, part of the CBRE Affiliate Network.
The portfolio was valued at $175.663 million (December 31, 2015: $160.31 million), the increase in the value of the portfolio was primarily driven by the increase in rental income and the improved stability of the hryvnia.
Total assets, as at December 31, 2016, amounted to $187.1 million (2015: $173.2 million). This represents an increase of 8% from the previous year.
Net Asset Value as at December 31, 2016 was $24.2 million (2015: $3.1 million), resulting in an Adjusted Net Asset Value per share of $0.23 (2015: $0.03).
Cash balances as at December 31, 2016 including cash equivalents and current deposits amounted to $4.953 million (2015: $3.349 million).
According to the report, total non-current liabilities in 2016 fell by 6.4%, to $52.281 million, while total current liabilities shrank by 3.2%, to $110.647 million.
Arricano said that bank debt at the year-end was $50.1 million, a decline of 16.6% year-over-year. Weighted average number of shares was 103.271 million, and the number of employees at the year-end was 112 people.
By late 2016, Arricano had 27 subsidiaries, including 14 in Ukraine, 10 in Cyprus, one each in Russia, Estonia and Isle of Man.
KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Agricom Group has started production of cereals under the Dobrodiya trademark and the new product line under the Super Hercules trademark consisting of five products, Director of the marketing department Halyna Horban has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Flakes is the most nutritious, tasty and cheap breakfast. In 2017, we plan that the flake market would start growing and reach the pre-crisis level. We have started actively studying demand of our consumers in this segment,” she said.
Horban said that the company designed the Super Hercules flake product line.
She said that by the end of the year Super Hercules could occupy 3% of the flake market in Ukraine.
Agricom Group seeks to supply Super Hercules not only to the domestic market, but to Europe. The company is holding talks with partners.
The cost of new flakes at Ukrainian stores will be around UAH 30 per a 600 gram package.
“In 2017 we launched 10 cereals under the Dobrodiya brand under contracts, as demand of distribution channels was seen. The quality department permanently monitors all stages of cereal production at our partners,” Horban said.
She said that the products are made at the partner plant in Kyiv region, but this autumn the company plans to launch own flake plant in Chernihiv region.
Аgricom Group produces and distributes food made of grain at own production base. It unites agricultural, processing and trade enterprises.
KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyivstar mobile operator has prepared 70% of its network for the introduction of 4G (LTE) communications and plans to reach 100% by the end of the second quarter of 2017.
“Traffic consumption has jumped. We have expanded the network capacity by 250%. We improve the technical specifications of the network. We have prepared 70% of the network for 1,800 MHz range and by the end of the second quarter 2017 we will prepare 100% of the network,” Kyivstar President Petro Chernyshov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He said that in 2015-2016 Kyivstar invested UAH 9.4 billion in infrastructure, including the cost of the 3G license.
PR Director of Vodafone-Ukraine Viktoria Ruban said that 89% of the operator’s network is ready for the introduction of 4G.
“Investment in the network in 2015-2016 totaled UAH 10 billion, including the cost of the 3G license,” she said.
The press service of lifecell did not specify the percentage for the readiness of its network, adding that all equipment installed by the operator for introducing 3G is ready for the launch of LTE.
“Total investment of lifecell in 2015-2016 was UAH 8.5 billion,” the press service said.
KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The investment of ED&F Man, one of the world’s largest sugar trading companies, in the first stage of an irrigation complex in the village of Kyselivka (Kherson region) amounted to $5 million.
According to a company press release, the first stage of the project is launched for irrigation of 1,000 hectares in Kherson region.
The company plans by 2020 to increase the total area under irrigation to 20,000 hectares in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions and invest more than $60 million.
“New automatic irrigation systems will ensure the proper moistening of fields around Zaselsky sugar plant, solve the problem of growing sugar beets in conditions of arid steppe,” the company said in the press release.
ED&F Man owns Zaselsky sugar factory (Mykolaiv region) with a production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of goods per year.
For the period of its work in Ukraine, ED&F Man has invested more than $150 million in development.
KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Sakhnakhshiri LLC (GIG Group, Tbilisi, Georgia) has won a tender of public joint-stock company Centrenergo to supply 700,000 tonnes of coal, according to the results of an auction held in the ProZorro procurement system.
Sakhnakhshiri offered to supply coal for UAH 1,808,789,000, while the second bidder – I–COAL Sp z o.o. (Poland) – offered UAH 1,808,790,000 (VAT not included).
If the results of the tender are approved, the cost of coal for Centrenergo will be around $97 per tonne with the initially expected around $102 per tonne.
The Georgian company earlier shipped coal to two Armenian and one Bulgarian companies, and inside Georgia – around 300,000 tonnes every year.
Sakhnakhshiri belongs to GIG Holding, part of GIG Group, the founder of which is David Bezhuashvili, brother of former defense minister and former foreign minister of Georgia Gela Bezhuashvili.
Earlier Centrenergo annulled two tenders announced in March and April to supply 700,000 tonnes of coal due to the absence of bids and announced the third tender.
The first tender’s initial price was up to UAH 1.523 billion (around $81-82 per tonne), the second – up to UAH 1.714 billion (around $91-92 per tonne) and the third – up to UAH 1.904 billion (around $101-102 per tonne).
Coal will be shipped to Zmiyivska and Trypilska thermal power plants (TPPs) in May-December 2017 (CIF Black Sea ports, Ukraine). The smallest batch is 70,000 tonnes.
