Ukrhazvydobuvannya JSC (UGV) has discovered a new gas field with reserves that may reach 1 billion cubic meters.
“The received geological information indicates that the reserves of the new field may reach 1 billion cubic meters of gas,” Naftogaz Ukrainy said in a press release on Tuesday.
UGV tested a drilling well with a depth of almost 4,000 meters “from scratch” and completed the work in August this year, before drilling the company’s specialists conducted a 3D seismic survey.
“This is not the first discovery of new hydrocarbon deposits this year. By building up reserves, we are creating a prospect for sustainable growth in gas production,” the press release quoted Ukrgasvydobuvannya’s acting general director Oleg Tolmachev as saying.
According to him, UGV will continue the geological exploration program at this field and plans to drill new wells.
As reported, UGV aims to increase natural gas production by 1 billion cubic meters to 13.5 billion cubic meters in 2023. In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021.
Naftohaz Ukrayiny owns 100 percent of Ukrhazvydobuvannya.
Prestige Insurance Company (Kyiv) plans to increase its authorized capital to UAH 49 million through an additional issue of shares worth UAH 27 million.
According to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), this issue is on the agenda of the company’s shareholders’ meeting scheduled for August 30, 2023.
The company plans to place 27 thousand shares of the company with a par value of UAH 1 thousand.
At the same time, it is specified that the participants in the placement are the shareholders of IC Prestige PrJSC as of August 30, 2023: Yevhen Bridun, Ihor Bridun, Yuriy Myronchuk, and Svitlana Atamas.
As reported, Yevhen Breedun owns 88.01% of the company’s shares, and Ihor Breedun owns 9.986%.
Prestige Insurance Company was established in 2012. The company has 14 licenses for voluntary and 11 licenses for compulsory insurance.
The company completed the first quarter of this year with net written premiums of UAH 11.773 million, which is 3.6% less than in the same period a year earlier. Gross written premiums for the first quarter decreased by 18% to UAH 15.5 million, while ceded premiums to reinsurers increased by 4.3% to UAH 5.6 million.
In the first quarter of this year, the company paid out UAH 2.6 million (-19.1%). Administrative expenses increased to UAH 820 thousand (+16.5%), and sales expenses increased to UAH 8.238 million (+3.2%).
Financial result before tax amounted to UAH 476 thousand (-15.3%), net profit – UAH 15 thousand (-44.5%).
The authorized capital is UAH 22 million.
Polish oil concern Orlen, which owns Orlen Lietuva, which operates the Mazeikiai refinery, sold PLN2.292 billion ($513.1 million at current exchange rates) worth of products to customers headquartered in Ukraine in the first half of 2023, up 61.9% from the first half of 2022.
According to the company’s consolidated report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, meanwhile, revenue in Ukraine fell by 8.2% to PLN1.046 billion ($234.2 million) in the second quarter of this year to the second quarter of last year.
The document specifies that directly Polish Orlen increased sales for Ukraine in the first half of the year to PLN1.253 billion ($280.5 million), although in the second quarter they decreased by 39.2% to PLN541 million ($121.1 million)
Overall, the Polish oil major’s sales jumped 79.1% to PLN184.891 billion ($41.4 billion) in the first half of this year, including a 29.1% jump to PLN74.612 billion ($16.7 billion) in the second quarter of this year.
The report indicates that since the beginning of February 2023, after the expiration of the contract with Rosneft, Russian oil supplies have covered only about 10% of the company’s demand for the commodity.
“These were only pipeline deliveries that were not subject to international sanctions,” Orlen pointed out.
It added that at the end of February 2023, the Russian side suspended deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline to Poland, which consequently led to the termination of the last contract with Tatneft for pipeline deliveries of crude oil to Poland from the Russian direction, so currently ORLEN refineries in Poland do not receive crude oil from Russia.
It is emphasized that the company has recently taken intensive actions to diversify supplies to the above mentioned refineries, which are carried out by sea transport from the North Sea, West Africa, the Mediterranean basin, as well as the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. Among others, Saudi Aramco is an important partner in the import portfolio for this feedstock, with whom Orlen has a strategic contract for crude oil supply in 2022. In addition, a long-term contract with BP for the supply of Norwegian crude oil was also concluded in 2023. Thus, according to the group, the suspension of oil supplies from Russia will not affect the supply of the company’s Polish customers, including gasoline and diesel fuel.
Ukraine ranks 28th in the world in wine production according to data for 2022, reported in the center of socio-economic research “CASE Ukraine”.
“We produced as of 2022 660 thousand hectoliters, or 0.26% of the world wine market,” – stated the experts.
According to the report, the first place belongs to Italy with 49.843 million hectoliters, which is 19.3% of total world production, the second – France (45.59 million hectoliters, 17.65%), the third – Spain (35.7 million hectoliters, 13.83%).
The analysts attributed the reasons for Ukraine’s low wine production to the destruction of vineyards in the Soviet Union during the fight against alcoholism, the Russian Federation’s transformation of the wine-growing regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions into a frontline zone since the occupation of Crimea in 2014, as well as the absence of a land market until 2020 and the existence of restrictions on land acquisition by legal entities and foreign investors.
PrJSC Barskyi Machine-Building Plant (Barmash, Bar, Vinnytsia region), a major Ukrainian manufacturer of equipment for the food industry, gas and electric boilers, plans to use its net profit of UAH 1.6 million in 2022 for business activities.
This is stipulated by the draft decision of the company’s general shareholders’ meeting scheduled for September 28, the agenda of which has been published in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC).
In particular, the shareholders intend to amend the company’s charter and replace the management board with a new management board. In this regard, it is planned to terminate the powers of the Chairman of the Board Ilya Luka, his First Deputy Gennadiy Luka and members of the Board Vasyl Gontar and Oleksandr Lototskiy.
At the same time, it is proposed to elect Ilya Luka (CEO) and Gennadiy Luka (director) to the board, who, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, are the ultimate beneficiaries of Barmash.
The Bar Machine-Building Plant produces, among other things, equipment for the alcoholic beverage, wine, oil and fat, canning, confectionery, and bakery industries, and since 2000, gas, electric, and solid fuel heating boilers under the ThermoBar brand.
According to opendatabot, in 2022, the company reduced its net income by 19.4% compared to 2021, while net profit increased to UAH 1.6 million from UAH 0.92 million.
According to the company, its assets amounted to UAH 94.29 million in 2022 (down 12.7%), including total receivables, which decreased by 36% to UAH 9.8 million. Current liabilities decreased by 7.2% to UAH 34.3 million, while long-term liabilities decreased by 14.4% to UAH 4.8 million.
Retained earnings amounted to UAH 2.52 million compared to UAH 0.92 million a year earlier.
The assets of pawnshops in the second quarter of 2023 increased by 6.2%, or by UAH 264 million – to UAH 4.54 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine said in a review of the non-banking financial sector.
According to its data, in general for the first half of the year they increased by 10.7%, or UAH 439 million, completely overlapping the reduction of UAH 188 million last year.
At the same time, it is indicated that the number of pawnshops continues to decline: after leaving the market last year 78 companies, in the first quarter of this year followed by 12, and in the second quarter – another 7 pawnshops. As a result, the number of market participants at the middle of this year was 164 – almost half the number at the end of 2019 (324).
The National Bank specified that among all sectors of the financial market, pawnshops were the fastest-growing both in the second quarter of this year and over the half-year, surpassing even banks, whose assets grew by 5.6% and 8.8%, respectively.
According to the NBU, the loan portfolio of pawnshops added UAH 245 million and UAH 298 million in the first and second quarters, respectively, reaching UAH 3.672 billion at the end of the period.
This allowed to increase interest income in the first quarter to UAH 656 million, in the second – to UAH 780 million, which is respectively by 2.9% and 96.8% more than in the same period last year.
At the same time, although revenues for salaries rose from UAH 100 million in the fourth quarter of last year to UAH 121 million in the second quarter of this year, they are still much lower than the approximately UAH 200 million before the war.
Rent expenses have also increased: from UAH 93 mln in the fourth quarter of last year to UAH 111 mln in the second quarter of this year, although before the war they amounted to about UAH 170 mln.
According to the results of the first quarter of this year, the net profit of pawnshops amounted to 14.21 million UAH, at the end of the second quarter it increased to 52.26 million UAH, while the same periods last year pawnshops ended with a net loss of 56.86 million UAH and 123.89 million UAH, respectively.
The volume of cash assets of pawnshops after a decrease in the first quarter from UAH 388 mln to UAH 340 mln in the second quarter increased only by UAH 3 mln, while the volume of fixed assets decreased during the half-year from UAH 463 mln to UAH 381 mln, probably due to the reduction in the number of companies in the market.
The growth of loans was largely due to an increase in accounts payable: from UAH 2.512 billion at the beginning of the year to UAH 2.659 billion at the end of the first quarter and UAH 2.902 billion at the middle of the year, while shareholders’ equity grew by only UAH 83 million to UAH 1.44 billion during this time.
The National Bank added that after the coverage ratio fell to 108% in the first quarter, it recovered to 111% in the second quarter. As for the structure of collateral, the share of precious metal products rose from 72% to 73% over the six months, while the share of household appliances fell from 28% to 26%.
