The military units that protect Kharkiv and the region have already received or will soon receive funds from the city budget to purchase the necessary equipment, said Mayor Igor Terekhov.
“I am in close contact with the commanders of the units that defend the city and the region. I know their needs, and I must say that Kharkiv has already allocated funds to some brigades, and in the near future will transfer money to our other defenders. We are talking about millions and millions so that the military can buy what they need to destroy the enemy,” Terekhov wrote on his telegram channel.
He also called on local businesses and MPs to financially support the region’s defenders.
“I also call on local businesses, members of the city council, members of the regional and district councils of the region, as well as members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from Kharkiv and the region to contribute their money to the defense of the city and the region,” Terekhov wrote.
Source: https://t.me/ihor_terekhov/1317
Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Numan Kurtulmuş discussed the intensification of interparliamentary cooperation.
“The current high level of inter-parliamentary relations is an important component of the common relations between our countries, which is supported by our presidents, governments and peoples,” the press service of the Verkhovna Rada’s apparatus quoted Stefanchuk as saying at a meeting with Kurtulmuş in Ankara on Tuesday.
The two sides also discussed the work of friendship groups and the acceleration of contacts between parliamentary committees, in particular, on international affairs and national security and defense.
Stefanchuk noted Turkey’s role in the creation and activities of the International Crimean Platform and emphasized that he looks forward to Kurtulmuş’s personal participation in the third parliamentary summit of the International Crimean Platform.
“Turkey, which has been supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity since the first days of the full-scale invasion, is doing enough to achieve a sustainable and just peace,” Stefanchuk said, emphasizing the importance of implementing the Peace Formula of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He emphasized that Ukraine looks forward to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s participation in the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland.
For his part, Kurtulmuş noted that Turkey supports Ukraine in its struggle for independence and sovereignty.
“We express our support for Ukraine in returning all the occupied territories, not only Crimea, and we stand for a sustainable and just peace,” Kurtulmuş said.
He expressed hope for a speedy end to the war and a transition to the stage of Ukraine’s recovery, in which Turkey will help Ukraine.
As reported, Stefanchuk is on an official visit to Turkey on May 13-15.
Arricano Real Estate Plc, a developer of shopping malls, continues to invest in the renovation of the Sun Gallery shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih and the construction of the Lukianivka shopping mall in Kyiv, said Margus Kurm, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arricano, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have not stopped any of our activities. We are going to invest in Kryvyi Rih to repair our property, as well as in the construction of the Lukianivka shopping mall and other planned projects,” Kurm assured.
As reported, the building of the “Solar Gallery” (Kryvyi Rih) was damaged on January 8, 2024, as a result of a Russian missile attack. According to experts, the repair work will cost more than UAH 30 million. Arricano has already invested UAH 17.5 million and needs to invest more to fully restore the mall.
According to Kurm, the total budget of the Lukianivka shopping mall is about $145 million, and the company has invested $84 million so far.
“This means that additional investments are needed to complete the project. And we also need to attract some financial institutions to lend to this project. Thus, the completion of this project mainly depends on how quickly we can stop the actual raiding of our other assets,” Kurm explained.
As reported, over the years of its operation in the Ukrainian market, Arricano has invested more than $600 million in the Ukrainian economy and continues to invest.
Arricano Real Estate Plc (Cyprus) specializes in the construction of shopping and entertainment centers and is one of the leading developers in the Ukrainian real estate market. It owns and manages five shopping centers in the country with a total area of 147.6 thousand square meters: “RayON and Prospekt in Kyiv, Sun Gallery in Kryvyi Rih, and City Mall in Zaporizhzhia. The company also owns 49.9% in Sky Mall (Kyiv) and land plots for further construction of three projects that are currently under design. The company is also engaged in the construction of the Lukianivka shopping center in Kyiv.
According to the earnings report, Arricano Real Estate Plc’s revenue for 2023 amounted to UAH 36 million 155.9 thousand, which is 52.8% higher than in 2022, while net profit increased 2.28 times to UAH 7 million 167.7 thousand.
According to the report, in the first half of 2022, the largest shareholder was Estonian Rauno Teder, who increased his stake to 70.86% from 15.92% after his father Hillar Teder transferred his stake to him. Dragon Capital Investments Limited and Jüri Põld were also named among the shareholders.
Arricano’s shares were listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2013 and delisted due to the war in 2023. In addition to Dragon Capital, Arricano has attracted foreign investment from various reputable international investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley clients.
The full text of the interview with Margus Kurm will be published on the main page of the agency’s website www.interfax.com.ua.
The global and domestic corn markets are showing a rise in prices due to the problems of growing this crop in South America, according to the analytical cooperative Pusk, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (AAC).
“Today, the situation on the corn market is determined by fundamental factors: problems in South America, which are the main suppliers of corn. Argentina had significant problems this year: droughts and pest damage. Brazil had excessive rainfall. These phenomena reduce the supply of corn in the world. The problems in South America are forcing many buyers to buy corn, and this is driving the market up,” the analysts explained.
In their opinion, buyers realize that in the new season key exporters will reduce production. In addition, the parallel rise in wheat prices also contributes to the rise in corn prices.
Experts expect Ukraine’s corn exports to reach 3 million tons in May. As of May 13, Ukraine has already exported 1.25 million tons of corn.
By next week, the conditional prices for Ukrainian corn will be about $170-178/ton on CPT deep water basis, $178-190/ton on CPT shallow water basis, $190-200/ton on DAP/CIF Constanta basis, $165-175/ton on DAP Vadul basis, according to Pusk.
Ukrgazvydobuvannya (UGV) has launched two more high-yield wells with a flow rate of 270,000 cubic meters and 120,000 cubic meters of gas per day, the press service of Naftogaz Group said Tuesday. According to it, the wells are 6,200 meters and 6,225 meters deep, drilled in the same field, in the same reservoir and almost simultaneously, so they are called “twins” in technical slang.
Thanks to the use of modern drilling machines, the skill of Ukrburgaz specialists and the reduction of accidents during the work, the wells were drilled in 8 months, whereas previously it took 2-3 years.
“New seismic and drilling data allowed our specialists to create a high-quality 3D model, which is one of the best in “Ukrgasvydobuvannya” and allows us to effectively plan the directions of further development of this field. The works on the field continue, and drilling of the next appraisal and production well will be completed soon”, – Oleg Tolmachev, Head of UGV, noted.
In total, since the beginning of 2024, UGV has already put into operation seven new high-yield wells, including twin wells.
As reported, UGV launched 86 new wells during 2023, of which 24 – with an initial flow rate of more than 100 thousand cubic meters.
In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas (marketable), which is 3% less than in 2021. At the end of 2023, the company’s marketable gas production amounted to 13.224 billion cubic meters, which is 0.679 billion cubic meters more than in 2022. The target for 2024 is 13.75 billion cubic meters.
Naftohaz Ukrainy owns 100% of Ukrhazvydobuvannya.
A group of banks and investment companies that hold securities trading licenses have notified the regulator, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), of their readiness to create a new stock exchange amid the threat of withdrawal from the market of two of the three existing exchanges, the PFTS and the Ukrainian Exchange (UX).
According to a copy of the letter sent last week to the head of the NSSMC, available to the agency, the signatories include, in particular, the Univer Investment Group, Dominant Trade, Daliz Finance, AMC Vsesvit, Altbank, Dzherelo, BTS Broker, AMC Ozon, AMC OTP Capital, Reisen Ukraine, and Profi-T Asset.
It is noted that among the main tasks of the new trade organizer are modern technological solutions for the work of online brokers, in particular, for online trading and investing through Diya-OVGZ, the development of the derivatives market, repos and swaps, and liquidity support.
“Under the current conditions, the new exchange will be able to take advantage of, among other things, experienced professionals and modern trading technologies,” the letter states, although, according to Interfax-Ukraine, there are no formalized agreements with the PFTS and UX, which are trying to stay on the market, in this regard.
It is specified that the process of creating a new exchange will take place in several stages, the first of which is to form the team of the future exchange and obtain a license, while the second will involve some private banks – Universal Bank (mono), Globus and others.
It is assumed that at the third stage, the capital of the new exchange may include state-owned banks, such as PrivatBank, Oschadbank, and Sense, which are interested in creating a high-tech trading organizer, followed by international financial organizations and foreign commercial entities.
The authors of the letter ask the NSSMC to support this initiative.
As reported, in late March, the NSSMC warned market participants that two of the three Ukrainian stock exchanges – PFTS (Kyiv) and UX – were at risk of losing their licenses due to violations of license conditions and suggested considering possible solutions, including the creation of a new exchange and voluntary surrender of exchange licenses.
“We have called the market to ensure that the participants most interested in the existence of this infrastructure understand the consequences for themselves, as many products are built on it. If the participants are satisfied that only one exchange will remain on the market (Perspectiva – IF-U), if they do not need competition among exchanges, the regulator will agree with this. If not, if they lack one exchange, if they want to hedge risks by creating another exchange, then make two, three, five – as many as necessary,” Yaroslav Shlyakhov, a member of the NSSMC, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine in April.
According to the NSSMC, the volume of trading in financial instruments on Ukrainian stock exchanges increased 2.7 times in 2023 to UAH 436.43 billion, of which 93% was accounted for by domestic government bonds. The share of PFS in the total trading volume was 62.9%, Perspectyva – 33.7%, and UX – 3.4%, but UX is the leader in terms of the number of transactions and instruments.
According to the Commission, in the unorganized market in 2023, the trading volume doubled to UAH 925.11 billion.
The PFTS Stock Exchange was founded in 1997. For a long time, PFTS was the market leader, but dissatisfied with the quality of its work, leading traders, together with the RTS, created the UX in 2008, which started operating in the spring of 2009 and was the first to launch “Internet trading.”
The Perspectiva Stock Exchange (Dnipro) received its license in March 2008, and before that it had been operating as a trade information system of the same name for almost two years.
