The profit of state-owned Ukreximbank for the first half of 2023 amounted to UAH 1.976 billion, while the same period of 2022 the bank ended with a net loss of UAH 2.537 billion.
“June’s net profit of UAH 440 million allowed Ukreximbank to complete the first half of 2023 with a profit of UAH 1.976 billion. For the same period of 2021, the Bank earned for the state UAH 1.1 billion,” the bank reported on Friday.
It is indicated that interest income generated by the working loan portfolio of the bank takes the main part in the structure of income.
In addition, the bank managed to settle NPL for UAH 670 million, the release said.
Ukrexim said that in the second half of 2023 it intends to increase lending to the economy, offering long-term resources under MFI programs, including grant and compensation components, as well as to support cities and communities in the restoration of infrastructure
“Ukreximbank will continue to fulfill its specialized role in Ukraine’s banking system – strengthening exports, improving the efficiency of imports, financing strategic sectors of the economy,” the state bank stressed.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of June 1, 2023, Ukreximbank ranked 3rd in terms of assets (UAH 274.04 billion) among 65 banks operating in the country. As of July 1, the network of the state bank has 48 branches across the country.
The USAID Economic Support for Ukraine Project has purchased 50 modern hopper cars, each of which can carry up to 70 tons of grain, for the needs of one of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, JV Nibulon LLC (Mykolayiv), the company’s press service reported.
According to the press release, the wagons are manufactured at the experimental mechanical plant “Karpaty” (Lviv region). The first 10 wagons have already been delivered, loaded with grain and are being prepared for further transportation of agro-products through Izmail.
“In conditions when the Russian Federation is blocking the sea routes of agro-products export from Ukraine, and 12 river ports “Nibulon”, located on the Southern Bug and Dnieper, are blocked, we must do everything possible to save jobs in the river ports, left without water and cut off from the river stations from the nearest logistics. Loading on railcars for further exports through the ports of the Odessa region is now possible thanks to the USAID Economic Support for Ukraine project, under which new modern railcars were purchased,” said Mikhail Rizak, Director of Government Relations and Sustainability at Nibulon.
He expressed hope for further support of donors in terms of providing wagons for each blocked port and emphasized the importance of resuming these transportations.
According to his information, before the blockade, more than 15 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products were transported through the Dnieper and Southern Bug, 4 million tons of which were grains.
JV Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for receiving agricultural crops, capacity for one-time storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats), and owned the Nikolaev shipyard.
“Nibulon” before the war cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported the maximum 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record shipments to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses from the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation reached $400 mln. Currently, the grain trader is operating at 30% of its capacity, has created a special unit for demining agricultural land and has started production of the first vessel for demining international waterways at its shipyards in Mykolayiv.
The grain trader recently raised EUR27m from the Danish Export Investment Fund (EIFO) to increase the capacity of the Bessarabsky branch in Izmail, where an elevator and a flour mill will be built.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is launching a EUR20 mln risk-sharing facility for the Ukrainian subsidiaries of Hungary’s OTP Bank: OTP Bank and OTP Leasing, to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially those operating in the agribusiness sector or owned by women.
“IFC assumes half of the risk on a combined EUR40 million portfolio covering key segments of the Ukrainian economy,” the corporation said in a press release on Friday.
It is specified that these will be the first risk-sharing arrangements in Ukraine under the IFC Small Loan Guarantee Program, which is supported by the European Commission and which will help save jobs, provide essential goods and services, restore supply chains, as well as generate export revenues and budget revenues.
IFC recalls that in 2021, SMEs accounted for 99.97% of all enterprises in Ukraine, generated about 60% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employed more than 7 million people. SMEs suffered significant losses in the second half of 2022, and now only 6% of them are doing business at the same levels as before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“A strong private sector is key to Ukraine’s economic revival. Expanding access to finance for businesses is critical to counteract the macroeconomic instability and supply chain disruptions that are now severely hampering economic activity in the country,” IFC Vice President for Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean Alfonso Garcia Mora was quoted as saying in the release.
He added that IFC aims to ensure access to credit and stimulate innovation as a key prerequisite for Ukraine’s recovery.
As reported, initially IFC from the World Bank Group considered the project of providing partial risk coverage of new financing for Ukrainian OTP Bank and OTP Leasing for EUR60 mln – EUR30 mln for each financial institution, estimating its possible participation in risk coverage up to EUR30 mln.
OTP Bank was the eighth among 65 Ukrainian banks in terms of total assets (103.33 billion UAH) at the beginning of June this year. The Bank has 75 branches in Ukraine.
“OTP Leasing is the largest leasing company in Ukraine with the share of about 45% according to the results of the first quarter of this year. The CEO of OTP Leasing Andrey Pavlushin reported earlier that in the first half of 2023 the company financed Ukrainian clients for UAH 2.2 billion, which is 3-4% more than the indicator of the first half of 2022.
Antonov State Enterprise has once again become 100% owner of the German company Antonov Logistic Salis – a company created to service air cargo transportation under the program of NATO countries, having achieved the exclusion of Belgian Cargo Air Solutions, which previously owned 49% of shares, from the number of shareholders.
“Our company since yesterday is the sole shareholder of the German subsidiary Antonov Logistic Salis. Now all dividends from its activities will go to the accounts of Antonov. The point in this process has been reached,” Acting Director General Yevgeny Gavrilov was quoted in the SE’s statement on Thursday.
It is specified that the case of SE Antonov and Cargo Air Solutions was considered in German courts, including the High Land Court of Dresden, where the company managed to prove the fact of falsification of the minutes of the shareholders’ meeting, which served as the basis for exclusion of Cargo Air Solutions from the list of shareholders.
“We have corrected the mistake of the former management of Antonov SE, whose actions authorized the sale of shares to an unknown company established less than a month before the purchase of shares. This fact was written about in the media back in 2021. In June 2023, Antonov SE at the company’s shareholders’ meeting made a decision to exclude Cargo Air Solutions from the list of shareholders,” the release said with reference to Olga Abramova, Antonov’s director for legal affairs and corporatization.
According to her, the Belgian company tried to block this decision in the courts, but to no avail.
The SE recalled that the first Antonov Logistic Salis contract under the program with NATO was signed in 2019 for three years. Last June, it was extended until the end of 2026.
Antonov SE provides air transportation for NATO and EU countries for emergency cargo delivery in crisis situations. Two An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft may be used. They should be in stand-by mode at Leipzig airport (Germany), and on additional call Antonov provides three more airplanes.
Agrarians of all regions have harvested early grain and leguminous crops on the area of 1495 thousand hectares and threshed 5 million 882 thousand tons of grain at a yield of 39.4 c/ha, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, the leaders in terms of threshing are the agrarians of Odessa and Mykolayiv regions, who threshed 1297 thousand tons and 344.8 thousand tons of grain respectively.
In total, Ukraine has harvested barley on 577.2 thousand hectares, which is 40% of the planned, from which 2.253 million tons have been threshed at a yield of 39.0 c/ha.
Wheat was harvested from 831 thousand hectares (18%). At a yield of 41.2 c/ha it was threshed 3420.2 thousand tons.
Peas were harvested from 85 thousand hectares (59%). At a yield of 24.6 c/ha it was threshed 208.9 thousand tons. Agrarians of Ternopil and Vinnitsa regions have completed pea harvesting.
In addition, agrarians of 12 regions have started harvesting winter rape: 1390.1 thousand tons of seeds with a yield of 24.7 c/ha on the area of 563.5 thousand hectares (41%).
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), rape – 1374 thousand hectares (+110 thousand hectares).
Kronospan Group, which has woodworking enterprises Kronospan UA (Volyn region) and Kronospan Rivne (Rivne region) in Ukraine, has invested more than EUR20 mln to establish a logistics center in Kalinovka village, Kyiv region, which was put into operation in May this year, said Natalia Pokinska, general director of Kronospan UA.
“In conditions of a full-scale war, disruption of logistics routes and other unfavorable conditions, we are investing more than EUR20 million logistics center near Kiev, the purpose of which is to receive road and rail freight from foreign Kronospan companies and our territorial divisions,” Pokinskaya said at the forum “FIT for Ukraine (Forum on Investments and Transformations): Furniture Cluster”.
According to her, the main stage of investments has been completed and the logistics center is currently located on 15 hectares of area, has facilities and capacities that it can provide to partners. Its construction was launched in 2019.
Pokinskaya emphasized that during 19 years of Kronospan Group’s work in Ukraine, the total volume of investments in the Ukrainian woodworking industry exceeded EUR900 million (both own funds and financial institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)), and since the beginning of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine – EUR122 million.
She reminded that the construction of the plant in Rivne region, investments in which started in 2019 and where the first particleboard production line was commissioned in 2021, is one of the largest investment projects in Ukraine in recent years (more than EUR400 mln).
In total, more than 700 jobs have been created at the company’s enterprises.
Kronospan Group, established in Austria in 1897, today is a major global manufacturer of wood-based sheet materials. It includes more than 40 production plants in many countries.
