Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak met with Ambassador of India to Ukraine Harsh Kumar Jain to discuss deepening of bilateral cooperation, the press service of the Ukrainian head of state reported.
In addition, during the meeting the parties exchanged views on the eve of important international events, in particular in the context of the opening of the new session of the UN General Assembly.
In turn, the head of the OP thanked India for participation in consultations on the implementation of the Formula of peace of the President of Ukraine.
“It is very important for us to support this open dialog, to know the opinions and understand the position of all our friends and partners,” – quotes Yermak press service.
Source: https://president.gov.ua/news/andrij-yermak-obgovoriv-iz-poslom-indiyi-podalshu-robotu-v-m-85329
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated 7bn hryvnias for the purchase of weapons and ammunition for the State Border Guard Service.
The Cabinet’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, said in Telegram that the relevant decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
In particular, allocated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (for the Administration of the State Border Service) on an irrevocable basis at the expense of the reserve fund of the state budget 7 billion UAH for the implementation of measures related to strengthening the defense capacity of the state, in particular, for the purchase of weapons and ammunition.
Sukha Balka mine (Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovs’k region), part of Aleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, commissioned a new iron ore mining unit at Yubileynaya mine on 17 August this year.
According to the corporate newspaper DCH Steel, the subsoil will be developed in the traditional way.
It is specified that the new block 122-128 is located in the Main deposit on the fifth floor of the minus 1420 m horizon of the Yubileynaya mine. Its reserves amount to about 166 thousand tons. The average iron content is 58.88%.
Mining will be carried out by the miners of the No. 10 section.
The new block is expected to be developed by the end of this year.
Sukha Balka mine is one of the leading mining companies in Ukraine. It produces iron ore by underground mining. The mine includes Yubileynaya and Frunze mines.
DCH Group acquired the mine from Evraz Group in May 2017.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has found Ukrspetspostavka LLC, Finance-Service Plus LLC and Glermont Trade LLC guilty of anticompetitive actions that distorted the results of the auction for the privatization of distilleries and fined them UAH 14.39 million.
According to the Committee’s press service, the auction was for the sale of certain property of the Zalozetsky alcohol production and storage site of the State Enterprise Ukrspyrt, which was conducted by the regional department of the State Property Fund of Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Ternopil regions. The amount of the contract concluded as a result of the auction was UAH 96.012 million (including VAT).
“During the investigation of the case, the Committee identified circumstances that, taken together, indicated that the above-mentioned business entities had committed concerted actions aimed at eliminating competition between them during the auction. In particular, this refers to such evidence as the defendants’ joint business activities, communication between them, exchange of information, etc.”, the AMCU explained.
The defendants were fined UAH 14,390,798 for the violation provided for in clause 4, part 2, article 6 and clause 1, article 50 of the Law “On Protection of Economic Competition” (anticompetitive concerted actions related to the distortion of auction results), as well as for collusion at the auction for the sale of state property.
In January-June 2023, the insurance company “Knyazha Life Insurance Group” (Kyiv) collected UAH 29.3 million of insurance payments, which is 6.66% more than in the same period a year earlier.
This was reported on the website of the rating agency Standard-Rating, which affirmed the company’s financial strength rating/credit rating at uaAA+ in the first half of 2023.
According to the report, the volume of payments and reimbursements of the insurer for six months amounted to UAH 19.636 million, which is 3.27 times higher than the volume of payments for the same period in 2022. Thus, the level of payments increased by 45.21 p.p. to 67.13%.
In the first six months of 2023, the company’s acquisition expenses decreased by 16.84% to UAH 4,347 million compared to the same period in 2022.
In the first six months of 2023, the insurer’s net profit increased to UAH 7.444 million, assets – by 4.06% to UAH 771.825 million, equity – by 8.49% to UAH 123.387 million, liabilities – by 3.26% to UAH 648.438 million, while cash and cash equivalents decreased by 97.49% to UAH 1.320 million.
As of the beginning of the second half of 2023, the equity of Prince Life Insurance Group covered 19.03% of liabilities, and 0.2% of the company’s liabilities were covered by cash and cash equivalents.
At the same time, the RA notes that as of July 1, 2023, the insurance company has formed a portfolio of financial investments in the amount of UAH 729.759 million, including bank deposits (UAH 156.7 million), investments in government bonds (UAH 573.059 million).
RA emphasizes that a high level of external support for the company is provided by its shareholder, the international insurance group headquartered in Austria, Vienna Insurance Group Wiener Städtische Versicherung AG, which is represented by 50 companies in 30 countries and is the leader in the insurance market of Central and Eastern Europe.
IMK Agroholding made $6.28 million in net profit in January-June 2023, which is 44.6% less than in the same period last year, and is largely due to higher logistics and distribution costs and cheaper agricultural products, the company said in a report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday.
According to the report, the holding’s revenue increased by 61.6% to $71.95 million, including exports that increased by 41.2% to $58.9 million.
At the same time, the revaluation of biological assets and agro-products in January-June this year brought 23.8% less than in January-June last year – $23.11 million.
And while the increase in cost of sales was not as significant as revenue, as a result, gross profit increased by only 8.6% to $32.54 million.
Due to the growth of logistics and distribution costs 2.4 times (up to $13.24 mln), the operating profit decreased almost 2.1 times to $8.65 mln compared to the same period last year.
At the same time, the situation was partially offset by positive exchange rate differences of $0.60 mln in January-June this year against exchange rate losses of $2.55 mln in the same period last year.
Normalized EBITDA for the first half of the year amounted to $17.06 mln, which is 41% less than in the first half of last year, due to higher selling expenses and lower crop prices.
It is specified that the main revenue of IMC in the reporting period brought sales of 329.11 thousand tons of corn – $62.37 million and 40.42 thousand tons of wheat – $8.93 million.
Net cash flow from operating activities in the first half of 2023 amounted to $12.6 million, while it was negative $7.68 million in the first half of 2022.
Although the volume of investments decreased by 30% to $2.66 mln, due to a significant increase in outflows from financial operations the net cash flow was still negative – $1.81 mln, which is, however, many times better than in the first half of last year – $10.06 mln.
As of the end of June this year, IMC’s current liabilities fell to $57.22 million ($66.84 million a year earlier), while non-current liabilities fell to $117.87 million ($155.20 million).
The company’s free cash flow at mid-year was $23.05 million, compared with $24.86 million at the beginning of this year and $17.36 million a year ago.
IMK is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine). It controls 120.3 thousand hectares (120.0 thousand hectares under cultivation). As of June 30, 2023, the group operated in two segments: crop production and grain elevators and warehouses.
The agroholding’s net loss in 2022 amounted to $1.1 mln vs. net income of $78.7 mln a year earlier, with revenue down 37.3% to $114 mln. EBITDA tripled to $36.2 mln.
In the first quarter of 2023, IMC had a net loss of $4.10 mln, which is 2.6 times less than in the same period last year. The holding’s revenue increased by 11% to $41.96 mln. EBITDA for the quarter was positive and amounted to $1.37 mln against negative $0.13 mln in the first quarter of last year due to sales growth and stabilization of the hryvnia.
