Bitcoin is losing more than 4% in trading on Friday amid a general investor withdrawal from risky assets amid traders’ concerns that global central bank rates will be held at higher-than-expected levels for longer than expected.
Bitcoin’s exchange rate fell 4.1 percent to $26474, according to Kraken data as of 12:55 p.m. Q4.
The cryptocurrency, which traded around $29,000 the day before, began to fall sharply in price amid rising US Treasuries yields, which reduced the attractiveness of investing in high-risk assets.
This triggered a massive liquidation of bitcoin positions on cryptocurrency exchanges. The bitcoin exchange rate fell by more than $2,000 within minutes during trading on Thursday, from $28400 to less than $26,000, Market Watch noted.
The volume of bitcoin positions closed in the past 24 hours exceeded $1 billion, according to Coinglass.
Experts note that the sharp drop in the cryptocurrency’s rate coincided with the release of an article in The Wall Street Journal about the sale of bitcoins by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. The article stated that SpaceX wrote down the value of the $373 million worth of bitcoins it owned in 2021 and 2022 and sold the cryptocurrency. WSJ did not specify exactly when SpaceX sold the bitcoins.
The temporarily occupied enterprise with foreign investment in the form of Zaporizhzhia Iron Ore Plant (ZZHRK) ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 371.605 million, while in 2021 it made a net profit of UAH 5 billion 193.310 million.
According to the draft decision of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for September 28, 2023, it is proposed to cover the losses for 2022 at the expense of future periods’ profits.
At the meeting, the shareholders also intend to approve the reports for 2022 and appoint the audit firm KPMG Audit to provide services for the statutory audit of the financial statements of the CJSC “ZZHRK” for 2022.
As reported, an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting held on July 15, 2022, left undistributed net profit for 2021 in the amount of UAH 5 billion 193.310 million. One shareholder was registered to participate in the meeting with a total number of ordinary voting shares of 57430967, or 51.169770% of the voting shares.
The administration of ZZHRK had previously announced that it had lost control over the company’s operations in the temporarily uncontrolled territory of Ukraine. At the same time, it was explained that with the outbreak of active hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, the administration of ZZHRK, in order to comply with industrial safety, implemented a number of measures to temporarily suspend the production process on February 26, 2022, from the day the Russian troops occupied part of the territory of Zaporizhzhia region. And since June 15, 2022, the economic activity and management of production processes at ZZHRK have been impossible due to illegal actions of third parties.
The administration of ZZRK filed a corresponding application with the SBU and law enforcement agencies. It was also noted that information about individuals who cooperate with the occupiers of the aggressor country and assist them in committing illegal actions against the enterprise and its property was transferred to the SBU and other law enforcement agencies to respond to the fact of the seizure of the enterprise and collaboration in accordance with the criminal legislation of Ukraine.
ZZHRK develops the Pivdenno-Belozerskoye and Pereverzevskoye iron ore deposits and produces commercial sinter and open-hearth iron ore. The company sells its products to steelmakers in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland, as well as to Zaporizhstal in Ukraine.
According to the NDU data for the first quarter of 2023, the main shareholders of the company are the Slovak company Minerfin, a.s. – 51.1698%, Zaporizhstal – 29.5193%, Czech KSK Consulting, a.s. – 19,0632%.
Agrarians of all regions of Ukraine have harvested early grain and leguminous crops on the area of 6185.1 thousand hectares, having threshed 27 million 259 thousand tons of grain at a yield of 44.1 c/ha, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, the leaders in grain harvesting are the farmers of Zaporizhzhya region, who threshed 96% of the area, the largest threshing remains in Odessa region – 3.2 million tons. Harvesting of early grain crops is fully completed in Poltava, Vinnitsa and Odessa regions.
To date, Ukraine has harvested barley on 1398 thousand hectares, which is 94% of the planned, of which 5.567 million tons were threshed; wheat from 4.384 million hectares (94%) harvested 20.818 million tons; peas from 152.2 thousand hectares (101%) received 379.1 thousand tons.
Agrarians of Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa and Ternopil regions have started harvesting millet, which was threshed 379.1 thousand tons from the area of 152.2 thousand hectares, which is 3% of the plan.
Dnipropetrovsk region threshed 0.1 thousand tons of buckwheat from 0.08 thousand hectares, which is 5% of all areas under this crop in the country.
In addition, 492.1 thousand tons of other grain and leguminous crops were threshed from 249 thousand hectares.
Agrarians of 13 regions have completed the harvest of rapeseed. It was threshed from the area of 1370.7 thousand hectares (92% of the planned area), from which 3944.1 thousand tons of winter rape was harvested.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy in connection with the revision of the forecast for the harvest of all crops monitors information on their yields. Thus, for barley this week it amounted to 39.8 c/ha against 38.8 c/ha a week earlier, wheat – 47.5 c/ha (46.2 c/ha), peas – 24.9 c/ha (24.6 c/ha), winter rape – 28.8 c/ha (28.1 c/ha), millet – 12.1 c/ha (6.9 c/ha). Data on buckwheat at 11.3 c/ha corresponds to last week’s figures.
As reported, winter wheat sowing this season amounted to 4166 thousand hectares (-834 thousand hectares to the previous season), winter barley – 536 thousand hectares (-255 thousand hectares), rapeseed – 1374 thousand hectares (+110 thousand hectares).
According to the adjusted forecast of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, in 2023 agrarians will be able to harvest grain in the following volumes: wheat – 20.9 million tons, barley – 5.8 million tons and corn – 28.1 million tons. Gross production of oilseeds will reach 20.3 million tons, in particular, sunflower – 12 million tons, rapeseed – 4 million tons, soybeans – 4.2 million tons. The sugar beet harvest is forecasted at 13.7 million tons.
Ukrainian mobile operator lifecell earned UAH 611.5 million in net profit in April-June 2023, while it ended April-June 2022 with a net loss of UAH 27.4 million.
Parent company Turkcell said in a report on its website on Thursday that lifecell’s revenue rose 36.5 percent to UAH 2 billion 903.1 million in the second quarter.
“Lifecell’s revenue grew by 36.5% year-on-year in local currency, mainly due to ARPU growth, which was supported by price adjustments and increased data consumption,” the company pointed out in a press release.
EBITDA increased by 39.3% to UAH 1 billion 715.1 million, while EBITDA margin increased by 1.2 percentage points to 59.1%. Turkcell attributed this improvement mainly to lower interconnection and electricity costs as a percentage of revenue.
At the same time, the company’s capital expenditures for April-June increased 2.2 times to UAH 1 billion 445.6 million.
According to the report, the base of active lifecell subscribers for this period amounted, as in the previous quarter, to 8.6 million against 8.4 million a year earlier, while the total number of customers increased to 11.1 million from 10.8 million in the previous quarter and 10.2 million a year earlier.
Meanwhile, ARPU (average revenue per user per month) among active users rose 36.1% year over year and 7.7% to 112.7 UAH in the quarter.
“The penetration of lifecell smartphones amounted to 84.6% as of the end of Q2. On average, about 96% of stores were operating daily as of the end of June. On average, about 7.3% of the nearly 9,000 sites were temporarily out of service on a daily basis in Q2,” the report also said.
Turkcell added that lifecell’s current cash reserves are “more than sufficient” to support its operations.
Overall in the first half of the year, lifecell’s revenue grew by 26.1% year-on-year to UAH 5 billion 590.6 million, EBITDA by 31.6% to UAH 3 billion 320.1 million and net profit by 6.2 times to UAH 1 billion 127.2 million. The company also increased capital investments by 52% to UAH 2 billion 83.6 million.
lifecell is the third largest mobile operator in Ukraine. Turkcell is the owner of 100% of lifecell’s shares.
Lifecell’s revenue in the second quarter amounted to 75.3% of Turkcell International’s revenue and 7.6% of the consolidated revenue of Turkcell as a whole.
On August 16, Kyivgas JSC announced a tender for motor vehicle hull insurance, according to the ProZorro electronic public procurement system.
According to the information, the expected cost of insurance services is UAH 600 thousand.
No bid security is required.
The deadline for submitting bids is August 24.
The winner of a similar tender a year earlier was Ultra Alliance Insurance Company.
Ukrainian insurance companies’ expenditures on advertising and marketing in January-June 2023 increased by 27.7% compared to the same period of 2022 – up to UAH 64.5 million, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on its website.
According to the report, insurers’ administrative expenses for the period amounted to UAH 2.656 billion, which is 2.5% more than in the first half of 2022, while their sales expenses increased by 6.3% to UAH 1.032 billion.
In addition, expenses on conclusion and prolongation of insurance contracts increased by 5.3% – up to UAH 5.317 billion, including expenses on agency fees – by 4.4%, up to UAH 4.899 billion.
Expenses on conclusion and prolongation of reinsurance contracts have increased 2,1 times – up to UAH 56,7 mln, including expenses on brokers’ remunerations – 2,2 times, up to UAH 56,1 mln, of which non-resident brokers – decreased by 12,5%, up to UAH 11,2 mln.
Expenses for insurance claims settlement increased by 40.9% to UAH 221.3mn, while expenses for appraisers’ services increased by 75.3% to UAH 77.5mn.
Expenses for assistance payment increased by 12.7% and amounted to UAH 91.7mn. At the same time payment for services of non-resident assistant has decreased almost twice – to UAH 4,2 mln.
Insurers’ expenses for court cases have increased in 3,1 times – up to UAH 33,1 mln.
As reported, insurance companies of Ukraine in January-June 2023 collected net premiums in the amount of UAH 20.895 billion, which is 21.7% more than in the same period of 2022, paid UAH 7.744 billion of net insurance payments (+31%). The level of net payouts increased from 34.4% to 37.1%.
According to the NBU, as of June 30, 2023, the total number of insurance companies in Ukraine amounted to 115, of which 12 specialized in life insurance, while on the same date a year earlier there were 142 (13).
