Lithuania has agreed on a corridor for the transit of Ukrainian grain to Baltic ports, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.
“Russia destroys food, Lithuania delivers it. A corridor for grain transit to Baltic ports has been approved and agreed upon, which eases pressure on the Ukrainian border and increases supplies to Africa and beyond. Cooperation gives results!” he wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, it was reported that veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control would be moved from the Ukrainian-Polish border to the port of Klaipeda (Lithuania) for all agricultural cargoes heading to this port within two days. This will speed up transit through Poland.
“Kryukov Carriage Works (KVSZ) has become the sole bidder in Ukrzaliznytsia’s (UZ) tender for the purchase of 44 new passenger railcars for UAH 1.951 billion, according to the protocol of tender offers disclosure in the Prozorro electronic public procurement system published on September 29.
KVSZ’s offer is pending a decision, according to the tender documents.
The tender was held in the form of a Dutch auction (for price reduction). The minimum step was 0.5% of the contract amount, or UAH 9.75 million. With the declared contract value of UAH 1 billion 951 million 009.4 thousand including VAT, the price of the tender offer of KVSZ after the auction was UAH 1 billion 951 million 008.6 thousand including VAT.
As reported, the winner of the tender should produce 12 passenger sleeping cars (PS) and 20 compartment cars, three passenger compartment cars equipped for the transportation of wheelchair users and a train manager’s compartment, 9 open-seat cars for UZ, with delivery by December 31, 2025.
The tender terms were adjusted, in particular by increasing the level of advance payment. According to the contract payment terms published in Prozorro, an advance payment of 65% is due 14 days after the invoice date. Full payment is made 30 calendar days after delivery of the goods in the amount of 35% of the contract amount.
Earlier, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Yevhen Lyashchenko, Chairman of the Board of Ukrzaliznytsia, said that the company would soon hold a tender for the purchase of 44 new passenger cars for UAH 1.9 billion, and in 2024 another tender for the purchase of 100 cars at the expense of the state budget, for about UAH 5 billion.
The head of UZ expressed hope that KVSZ, with which Ukrzaliznytsia has fully paid off its debts for the supplied passenger cars, as well as other large machine-building companies, will participate in the tender in 2023. He pointed out that the level of advance payments had been increased, which was critical for manufacturers.
UZ reported that the new cars will be equipped with vacuum toilets, changing tables, sockets and USB ports for fast charging of gadgets, electronic displays, and coffee makers. Cars for the transportation of passengers with disabilities will be equipped with lifting platforms for comfortable boarding of passengers in wheelchairs. Doors in compartment and SV cars will be equipped with an alarm system and a door lock button for greater passenger safety. There is also a video surveillance system.
The company also clarified that the tender conditions reflect the changes that the government made the day before to the procedure for using budget funds under the passenger rolling stock renewal program in order to attract manufacturers to the tender and provide all conditions for an effective purchase, unlike the previous tender, which was held in accordance with the procedure before the changes were made.
In June, UZ canceled a tender for the purchase of 20 passenger railcars for UAH 882 million due to a lack of bids. The tender provided for an advance payment of 29.99% of the contract amount, which was to be made within 15 banking days.
By the spring of this year, KVSZ completed the fulfillment of UZ’s order for the supply of 100 passenger railcars under the contract concluded in 2021 for more than UAH 3 billion.
The U.S. Department of Defense has the ability to provide Ukraine with another $5.4 billion worth of weapons, Voice of America reports, citing the Pentagon.
“The Pentagon has the opportunity to provide Ukraine with another $5.4 billion worth of weapons. Currently, the United States can make deliveries from its warehouses for this amount to meet the urgent needs of the Armed Forces on the battlefield,” the Voice of America said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Ukraine continues sowing winter crops, which have already been planted on 2.992 million hectares compared to 2.179 million hectares a week earlier, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, winter rapeseed was sown on 1.087 million hectares (1.038 million hectares a week earlier), grain crops – 1.906 million hectares (1.141 million hectares), of which 1.743 million hectares (1.024 million hectares) are under wheat, 109 thousand hectares (74 thousand hectares) under barley, and 53.6 thousand hectares (42 thousand hectares) under rye.
According to the report, over the past week, farmers sowed 764.7 thou hectares (556 thou hectares) of winter crops.
Most of the winter crops were sown in Sumy region – 87%.
Winter rapeseed sowing is nearing completion in all regions.
As reported with reference to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the vast majority of farmers do not plan to significantly change the area under winter crops in 2024 compared to last season.
The postal and logistics group Meest intends to set up its own air transportation company a year after the end of the war, Meest China shareholder Vyacheslav Lysenko told Interfax-Ukraine in an interview.
“An international aviation logistics group is very serious. We need to prepare for it now, and this is exactly what we are doing now – studying, calculating, modeling. I can say this – we will definitely approach the issue of purchasing transport aircraft a year after the end of the war,” he said, adding that the company is carefully studying the purchase of transcontinental aircraft capable of flying up to 10 thousand kilometers.
The group came to the conclusion that it needed to set up its own air transportation company three years ago, but the issue was put on hold due to the full-scale invasion.
“We have this dream and have been studying this issue for three years now. But now it is definitely not on the agenda because of the full-scale invasion and the closed skies over Ukraine. We will not use European airports, because in this case we lose all competitive advantages. European companies have hundreds, thousands of airplanes and, of course, have better conditions and rates,” Lysenko said.
Prime One Capital Limited, the majority shareholder of Ovostar Union, controlled by CEO Boris Belikov and Chairman of the Board of Directors Vitaliy Veresenko, has reduced its stake from 67.93% to 65.93% of the authorized capital.
According to the agricultural holding’s announcement on the stock exchange, the deal to sell 120 thousand shares took place on September 29 at a price of PLN70 per share ($15.87 at the current exchange rate), while the current exchange rate is PLN61.5 per share.
It is specified that Prime One Capital now owns 3 million 956.046 thousand shares.
As reported, the international insurance group Fairfax Financial Holdings (Canada) increased its stake in Ovostar from 17.499% to 27.51% following the transaction on September 13, while the pension fund Generali OFE managed by Generali Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytlane S. A., which owned 10.93% of the shares.
In this regard, the shares of Ovostar, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, were excluded from the list of index participants after the September 26 session: WIG, WIG-CEE, WIG-food and WIG-Ukraine.
“Ovostar no longer meets the criteria of the above indices, as the share of its shares in free-float is less than 10%,” GPW Benchmark said.
As a result, only six issuers remained in the WIG-Ukraine country index, with two accounting for more than 80% of the index basket: “Astarta – 47.083% and IMC – 34.888%, while Ovostar’s share before the exclusion was 19.158%.
The WIG-Ukraine index began to be calculated on May 4, 2011. The base level of 1000 points was taken as December 31, 2010. The WIG-Ukraine is a total return index, so its calculation takes into account both share prices and income from dividends and subscription rights. The index currently stands at 246.6 points.
“In mid-June 2011, Ovostar Union conducted an IPO of 25% of its shares on the WSE at PLN62 per share and raised $33.2 million.
In the first half of 2023, the holding earned $20.63 million in net profit, while it ended the same period in 2022 with a net loss of $19.78 million. Revenue increased by 56.8% to $88.69 million, mainly due to higher prices for its products.
