KYIV. May 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian representative office of France’s GEFCO Group – GEFCO Ukraine – tentatively saw a 47% rise in turnover in 2016 compared to 2015, to UAH 230 million, GEFCO Ukraine CEO Oksana Yakovleva has said.
“Growth of turnover was 47%, to UAH 230 million. The company managed to double profit, despite the fact that 2014-2015 years were hard for the whole industrial sector of Ukraine, including for GEFCO. Nevertheless, the efforts to diversify our portfolio in 2015 were fruitful in 2016. In 2017 we plan to see at least 20% of growth of turnover. We are trying to grow and expand not only the portfolio of clients, but also attract new clients,” she told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.
Yakovleva said the company plans to invest in creation of new jobs.
The top manager said that GEFCO Ukraine passed the crisis without workforce reduction.
She said that cargo flows have reoriented in the past three years, as earlier production in the country was mainly focused on the Russian market, and its loss triggered companies to look for new markets.
“Markets of African countries, North and Latin Americas, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia have been developed. Iran is disburdening from U.S. sanctions. It is also interesting for us, as some Ukrainian manufacturers have started shipments there,” she said.
Automobile products, spare parts, agricultural machinery and FMCG goods have the largest share of the company’s portfolio in Ukraine.
“The share of agricultural products was 10%, as Ukraine is a large exporter of raw materials. In general, we also work with supplies of agricultural machinery and spare parts for it,” Yakovleva said.
The company seeks to climb on the global logistics market in the future.
Commercial Director Andriy Miahkov said that the group also plans to bring its turnover to EUR 8 billion by 2020 from EUR 4.2 billion in 2015.
KYIV. May 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Wind Power LLC, part of DTEK Energy Holding, in 2016 saw a net profit of UAH 428.998 million against UAH 1.002 billion of net loss a year earlier.
According to a company report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, its net income in the reporting period increased by 21%, to UAH 2.037 billion and gross profit rose by 21.3%, to UAH 1.451 billion.
Wind Power operates Ukraine’s largest Botiyevska Wind Power Plant with a capacity of 200 MW. It has projects of construction of two other wind plants at different stages of development.
According to DTEK Director General Maksym Tymchenko, in addition to wind power, the holding intends to invest in construction of solar power plants. The first project will be the construction of a solar power plant with a capacity of 10 MW in Kherson region.
KYIV. May 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) will not pay dividends for 2016 and direct net profit in the amount of UAH 2.704 billion for development of production.
According to a plant press release, this decision was made at an annual general meeting of shareholders on April 27 this year.
The shareholders heard the reports of the company’s executive body for 2016, the supervisory board and the revision commission for 2016, approved the annual report, and made the decision on profit distribution. The shareholders also approved a new wording of the statute, the provisions on a general meeting of shareholders and the supervisory council.
Members of the supervisory board and the revision committee were re-elected for a new term at the meeting.
The plant’s net sales income in 2016 amounted to UAH 52.96 billion, net profit UAH 2.7 billion.
“Based on the results of approval of profit distribution, it was decided to direct profit PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih received in 2016 for production development,” the press release reads.
KYIV. May 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – On the outcomes of the activities of 2016 as well as of the first quarter of 2017 the country shows a positive trend of gradual economic upturn, and this should be the basis and the key to boost investment in the country and ensure implementation of successful projects in the real economic sector, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said at a meeting with leaders of the American Chamber of Commerce.
“The most crucial is that we have managed to establish a dialogue, understand each other and discuss questions not from meeting to meeting, but in the process of work. We set tasks and we are trying to tackle them. Ukraine is on the track of economic growth now and this is the movement towards increasing investment,” the press service of the government reported on Friday, citing Groysman.
The prime minister reminded representatives of the business community the government’s core objectives for this year are namely, a pension reform, a land reform, large-scale privatization and sectoral reforms in healthcare and education.
He said that the transformations offered by the government, in particular for land issues, have raised a wide discussion in society, however, a compromise would be found, as well as the process concerning a large-scale privatization will be triggered.
Groysman said that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade with the assistance of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers has already elaborated the required package of legislative amendments and soon the process of finding advisors to sell major state-owned assets will be launched.
“We are engaged in the process of establishing of industrial parks, as the government’s target is to replace the economy dependent on raw materials and to boost production in Ukraine. At the same time I understand that in order to achieve that it is important to create favorable conditions,” Groysman said.
He said that the government is committed to continue deregulation and to further implement reform of the State Fiscal Service, inter alia improving tax and customs procedures.
Groysman also recalled that the unified electronic register of VAT refunds, which was launched a month ago, has already enabled business representatives to feel changes in this sector.
The meeting was also attended by Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the United States in Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
KYIV. April 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Agrarian associations support lifting restrictions on land purchase and sale from 2024, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council Mykhailo Sokolov said at the Agri Invest Forum 2017.
“The land market should not be launched immediately, there should be an opportunity for both agrarians and the state to prepare for this. The transition period should be five years, the market should be launched from 2024,” he said.
According to the expert, this opinion is shared by the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, the Association of Milk Producers, the Pig Breeders of Ukraine association, the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners of Ukraine and others that unite more than 90% of agricultural producers in Ukraine.
“Before the market launch, data in the state land cadaster and the register of rights to immovable property must be fully included and corrected, a program of preferential lending to farms of up to 100 hectares should be launched, and land to former and incumbent employees of state agricultural enterprises, who did not participate in land sharing, should be allocated,” Sokolov said.
KYIV. April 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – ED&F Man, one of the world’s largest sugar trading companies, has invested $5 million in the launch of the first stage of an irrigation complex with an area of 1,000 hectares in Bilozerka district of Kherson region.
“The first line of the complex, in which the British company has already invested $5 million, will allow growing sugar beets on 1,000 hectares in a zone of risky farming,” a press release from the company reads.
The company intends by 2020 to restore the irrigation system on a total area of 20,000 hectares in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, investment will exceed $60 million.
“We focus on a full cycle of production: from seeds to finished products, sugar. Both the company and the Ukrainian economy are interested in a high added value. Through cooperation with local and central authorities that create conditions necessary for us, ED&F Man has more comfortable conditions for work, so we can plan the following investment projects,” Managing Director for Commodities at ED&F Man Jan Kees van der Wild said.
According to Kherson region governor Andriy Hordeyev, the national budget foresees UAH 30 million for improving irrigation in 2017, of which UAH 26 million will be allocated to Kherson region.
During the period of work in Ukraine, ED&F Man has invested more than $150 million in development.
ED&F Man was founded in London in 1783. It is the largest supplier of food, sugar, spices, animal feed, tropical oils, rubber, biofuel and coffee through a network of offices and agencies in more than 50 countries.
