Blumi LLC (Odesa), a manufacturer of sanitary and hygienic paper products under the Snow Panda brand, produced UAH 369 million worth of products in January-November 2024, up 3.7% compared to the same period in 2023.
According to statistics provided by UkrPapir Association to Interfax-Ukraine, the company slowed the growth rate of this indicator in 10 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, which was 10.3% in the first 10 months of the year.
In physical terms, the production of toilet paper increased by 5.5% to 43.8 million rolls.
As reported, over 11 months, the main Ukrainian producers of sanitary paper products produced 584.84 million rolls of toilet paper, up 4.5% year-on-year.
Bloomi, which was registered in 2014, produces pulp-based sanitary products (toilet paper, napkins, towels) from imported raw paper. The products are manufactured at the facilities of Omega Brokers PE, one of the leading Ukrainian manufacturers of detergents, disinfectants and sanitary products.
In 2023, the company almost doubled its production volume by 2022 to UAH 367.3 million.
The company is co-owned equally (25% each) by four Odesa-based entrepreneurs.
An increase in the military tax will not reduce the investment attractiveness of real estate and will not increase the shadowing of the market, according to lawyers interviewed by Interfax-Ukraine.
“In my opinion, the increase in the military tax will not greatly affect the investment attractiveness of really good real estate. In addition, in most cases, at the investment stage, real estate is sold through investment funds, and the military duty is not paid at the initial purchase,” Ivan Marynyuk, Head of Tax Practice at Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm, told the agency.
He clarified that the obligation to pay the military duty in real estate sales transactions arises depending on the existence of an object of taxation by personal income tax (PIT). Certain transactions with residential real estate and land are exempt from personal income tax under certain conditions, so the military fee will not be paid.
At the same time, transactions on the sale of non-residential real estate are always subject to personal income tax and military duty, regardless of the period of ownership and the number of sales during the calendar year.
At the same time, commenting on possible ways to optimize taxes in real estate transactions, Mr. Maryniuk noted that the most common option is to understate the actual sale price of the property and make payments outside the contract, alternate residential real estate sales (if two or more properties are planned to be sold during the year) or gift transactions.
In his opinion, the increase in the military duty rate will not have a major impact on the real estate market and will not significantly contribute to the development of shadow transactions.
“Now real estate transactions are more regulated by the state for taxation purposes, there are certain minimum values that cannot be lowered. Transactions will be carried out in the same manner as before the military duty increase,” he said.
For his part, Sayenko Kharenko’s counsel Timur Enkhbayar said that the market cannot ignore the more than threefold increase in the military duty, but this does not apply to the entire real estate market.
“Large players with well-structured businesses from a corporate and tax perspective are unlikely to experience significant fluctuations. Roughly speaking, the sale price of residential and commercial real estate from developers or transaction prices in the corporate segment should not react to these changes,” he said.
At the same time, Enkhbayar noted that in certain niches, in particular when individuals sell investment property, it will indeed become a significant factor and lead to an increase in price in direct proportion to the increase in the military tax, but such an increase can be directly accounted for in the price.
“The seller can simply pass the costs on to the buyer without specifying their amount, and the actual price of the property will not change in such circumstances,” he explained.
The lawyer predicts that after the increase in the military duty, it is obvious that “at the household level, the most attractive objects on the secondary market will be those that have been owned for more than three years or are inherited.”
“In this case, the military fee, as well as personal income tax, is not paid at all. Also, military personnel are exempt from paying it, so their properties can also gain a certain advantage in the market in the eyes of potential buyers,” he said.
At the same time, commenting on possible ways to optimize taxation, Enkhbayar emphasized that the real estate industry has long had mechanisms that allow it to structure its operations in a completely legal manner from a corporate and tax perspective.
“For example, when contributing real estate to the authorized capital of an LLC, an investor may in the future sell a share in the authorized capital of such a company at the value of the contributed real estate, which will be a tax-neutral transaction. Of course, this is a somewhat complicated model for the sale of a single apartment by an individual. However, the law allows ordinary individuals to sell real estate and inherited real estate once every three years without tax. This is a fairly reasonable limit. Everything else is more related to activities that are somewhat speculative,” he said.
At the same time, the lawyer noted that in fact the effect of the increase in the military tax can be quite positive.
“An investor who deals with real estate purchase and sale transactions on a regular basis for profit has the right to confirm his or her expenses for the acquisition of the property, and then the tax will be paid only on the difference. In this case, the additional burden of the increased military tax in real money may be the equivalent of several hundred dollars. In turn, this may push investors who traditionally preferred optimization with lower purchase prices to come out of the shadows and conduct their transactions completely “in the white” to pay less taxes,” Enkhbayar summarized.
As reported, on October 10, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole the draft law No. 11416-d on amendments to the Tax Code regarding the peculiarities of taxation during the martial law period. The document envisages an increase in the military tax from 1.5% to 5%, the bank profit tax to 50% in 2024, and an increase in a number of other taxes and fees starting from October 1 this year.
Novus Ukraine LLC has invested UAH 1 billion 360 million in business development in 2023-2024, said Oleksiy Panasenko, Deputy CEO for Operations at NOVUS, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“In total, NOVUS invested UAH 1 billion 360 million in 2023-2024 to expand its network, own logistics center, restore damaged and open 16 new stores, and implement an energy efficiency program. In 2025, we plan to invest in the development of the company, in various formats, despite the war. Our goal is to provide every customer with access to quality products,” he said.
He added that in 2024, 17 new facilities have already been opened, including 14 Mi Market convenience stores in the capital region. In particular, on December 18, Mi Market was opened in the residential complex Respublika with an area of 103.8 square meters, on December 20, the opening of NOVUS in Kyiv at 12 Petropavlivska Street was announced, and two more Mi Markets will open by the end of the year.
“The Mi Market format is highly efficient due to its compactness and focus on everyday needs. We see great prospects for the development of new residential areas and are actively working on an expansion strategy. We are planning to scale this format in densely populated areas, this year we will open two more, in 2025 – another 50 new Mi Market stores,” said Panasenko.
He noted that the Mi Market convenience store format provides for an area of 50 to 400 square meters. Investments in the opening of such a store, including renovation, purchase of equipment and other operating expenses, amount to about UAH 5 million.
The company is also preparing to open two NOVUS stores in the near future. One on Petropavlivska Street on December 20 with a total area of 600 square meters, and one on Sofiiska Borshchahivka in the first half of next year with a total area of over 2 thousand square meters.
“Both of them are equipped with modern energy-efficient equipment for uninterrupted operation and products of our own production,” Panasenko added.
He added that at this stage the company has no plans to expand to other regions.
“Currently, we are strategically focused on developing in the capital region and creating the most comfortable conditions for customers. Our main bet now is on organic growth and opening new stores in Kyiv and the region. We have no detailed plans to expand to other regions. At the same time, we are open to any proposals and are ready to consider new regions if it is economically feasible. It is important for us not just to enter a new market, but to be able to develop and build an effective business in this region,” said Panasenko.
The NOVUS supermarket chain is developed by BT Invest (Lithuania), a company established in 2008 by former Sandora shareholders Raimondas Tumenas and the late Igor Bezzub. As of the end of December, the chain had 115 locations (85 NOVUS, 28 Mi Market convenience stores and two Hapaika discounters).
According to Opendatabot, as of July 2021, the owner of Novus Ukraine with a 100% stake in the authorized capital was Consul Trade House CJSC (Vilnius, Lithuania). The ultimate beneficiaries are Marina Poznyakova, Agne Ruzgienė, and Raimondas Tumenas.
According to the company’s financial results, in 2023, its revenue increased by 47% to UAH 23.6 billion, while its net loss decreased by 87% to UAH 310.7 million.
Zelenyi Park LLC (Iziaslav, Khmelnytskyi region), which produces corrugated paper (fluting) and containerboard, increased its production by 19.4% in January-November this year compared to the same period in 2023, to UAH 514.6 million.
According to statistics provided by UkrPapir Association toInterfax-Ukraine, the company’s growth rate slowed down a bit over the first 11 months of the year, with a 24% increase in the first ten months and a 26.6% increase in the first nine months.
In January-November, production in physical terms increased by 3.8% to almost 29 thousand tons. At the same time, in November, the company reduced the production of fluting and test liners by 36.4% by November 2023 and by 39% by October this year, to 1.9 thousand tons.
Zelenyi Park LLC was registered in 2011 and manufactures products from waste paper, processing up to 72 thousand tons of waste paper annually.
The factory is equipped with Finnish Valmet equipment, which allows it to produce fluting and testliner with a density of 70 to 200 g/sq. m and a roll width of up to 2.8 m.
According to the Clarity Project, the owner of 100% of Zelenyi Park LLC is Cyprus-registered Carton Mill Limited, and the ultimate beneficiaries are ATB Corporation co-owner Gennadiy Butkevych and Volodymyr Shandra (full name is the same as the full name of the former Minister of Industrial Policy (2005-2006) and the former Minister of Emergency Situations (2007-2010) – IF-U).
The company ended 2023 with a loss of UAH 78.2 million (56% more than a year earlier) on a 6.8% drop in revenue to UAH 498.6 million.
Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has invested more than UAH 410 million in modernizing its livestock enterprises since the start of the full-scale invasion, its press service reported on Facebook.
“During the war, livestock farming has become a pillar of food security and economic stability for businesses. In particular, we managed to compensate for the decline in exports due to the Russian blockade of seaports at the beginning of the full-scale invasion by using milk processed and sold in Ukraine,” Yaroslav Kushnir, director of Astarta’s livestock department, explained in a statement.
It was specified that the agricultural holding will continue to consolidate and reconstruct existing facilities, build new ones, and work with breeding and genetics, which will help to increase the economic efficiency of the segment, herd productivity and optimize livestock management.
Kushnir noted that Astarta is the largest producer of industrial milk in Ukraine with an annual production of 115 thousand tons. The company’s cattle herd totals more than 28 thousand heads.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 mln, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 mln, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 mln.
In January-September 2024, the total area of residential buildings for which construction permits were issued (new construction) decreased by 6.6% compared to the same period in 2023, to 2 million 962.3 thousand square meters, according to the State Statistics Service (Ukrstat).
According to the statistics agency, in January-September 2024, the total area of new construction of apartment buildings decreased by 8.3% year-on-year to 2.8 million square meters. The number of apartments declared at the start of construction in apartment buildings decreased by 12.2% to 30.9 thousand.
According to the State Statistics Service, the largest number of new housing starts in the first nine months of the year was reported in Lviv region: the total area of new housing construction amounted to 499 thousand square meters (7 thousand apartments).
Significant volumes of new housing were also declared in Kyiv region – 494.8 thousand square meters (11.9 thousand apartments), as well as in Ivano-Frankivsk region – 317.8 thousand square meters (5.3 thousand apartments), Zakarpattia region – 292 thousand square meters (5.3 thousand apartments), Transcarpathian region – 292 thousand square meters (5.3 thousand apartments), and in the city of Kyiv – 292 thousand square meters (5.3 thousand apartments). sq. m. (5.3 thousand apartments). apartments), Transcarpathian – 292.3 thousand sq. m. (3.8 thousand apartments), Vinnytsia – 236.3 thousand sq. m. (4.1 thousand apartments), Khmelnytsky – 141.6 thousand sq. m. (2.3 thousand apartments) and Volyn – 140.7 thousand sq. m. (3 thousand apartments).
In Kyiv in January-September 2024, the total area of new housing construction amounted to 330.3 thousand square meters (2.9 thousand apartments).
The State Statistics Service reminds that the figures exclude the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation and part of the territories where hostilities are ongoing (or have been ongoing).
As reported, the total area of new housing construction in 2023 decreased by 37% to 4.2 million square meters, while in 2022 it amounted to 6.67 million square meters, and in 2021 – 12.7 million square meters.
