Representatives of the National Police of Ukraine and Kyiv municipal security officers will patrol the places of worship and gatherings of believers during the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord on May 5 to maintain law and order, said the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Serhiy Popko.
“Law enforcement officers will be on duty near the churches to help evacuate believers and clergy to the nearest shelters during the air raid. In addition, there will be special temporary monitoring centers that will promptly monitor the situation in Kyiv to avoid offenses,” the city military administration said in a statement on its telegram channel on Wednesday.
It is reported that law enforcement officers will guard churches, cathedrals and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve in the capital “in order to prevent provocations.”
The curfew on Easter will remain in effect from 00:00 to 05:00, Popko said.
“Dear Kyiv residents and guests of the city, if possible, watch the service online – on TV or via YouTube or Facebook. If you do decide to go to church, take care of safety! Try to avoid large crowds. Do not forget that the country is at war. Our enemy has nothing sacred! Even on such bright days of celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord, the aggressor can only be expected to do evil! The threat of provocations or rocket attacks on this day has not been lifted! Follow the safety rules. Be aware of air raid warnings. When they are announced, go to the nearest shelter,” the statement reads.
International grain trader Qortia AG (Switzerland) has resumed grain shipments from Ukraine’s deepwater ports, the company reported on Linkedin.
According to the report, the company sent the vessel Bereket M (Panama flag) with a cargo of 21.5 thousand tons of Ukrainian corn from Pivdennyi port to Turkey.
“Bereket M became the first vessel this year that Qortia AG loaded exclusively by its own resources in a deep-water Ukrainian port. Since the company’s establishment, we have been actively shipping to Ukraine from deep water for six years. However, after the Russian invasion, we focused mainly on the development of river transportation and transshipment in the ports of the Danube cluster, where the company’s share reached 15%,” the statement said.
Qortia AG is a Swiss agri-trading and logistics company headquartered in Switzerland. It specializes in the purchase and export of grains (wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, etc.), oilseeds, and processed products. The Ukrainian representative office is located in Odesa. Its owners are Konstantin Kuflyk, Dmitry Yandovsky, and Andrey Vitryak.
Bereket M is a bulk carrier flying the flag of Panama. Its length (LOA) is 154.38 meters and its beam is 26 meters.
Poznyaky-Zhil-Bud PrJSC (Kyiv) increased its net profit by 3.3 times to UAH 19.8 million in 2023.
According to the company’s financial results, published in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), net income also increased 3.3 times to UAH 240.6 million.
In 2023, Poznyaky-Zhil-Bud’s retained earnings amounted to UAH 2.1 million. By the end of the reporting period, long-term liabilities decreased by 41.3% to UAH 3.2 million, while current liabilities increased by 5.4% to UAH 2.36 billion.
In general, the value of Poznyaky-Zhil-Bud’s assets increased by 6.2% last year to UAH 2.37 billion.
The company did not provide information on the distribution of dividends for 2023.
According to the NSSMC, as of the third quarter of 2023, Ruzanna Kahramanyan (100%) is the shareholder of Poznyaky-Zhil-Bud.
Poznyaky-Zhil-Bud PrJSC was founded in 2002 and specializes in the construction of elite residential real estate, commercial real estate and social infrastructure.
According to the company’s website, its portfolio of completed construction projects includes residential and office complexes with an area of over 1 million square meters.
Since December 2015, Poznyaky-Zhytlo-Bud Corporation has been a part of the investment and development group of companies Taryan Group (Kyiv), established in 2011 by Artur Mkhitaryan, former president of Poznyaky-Zhytlo-Bud PrJSC.
FDI McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, which is developing the McDonald’s fast food chain in Ukraine, plans to develop partnership programs with gas station chains, Vitaliy Stefurak, McDonald’s Ukraine Development Director, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, in the summer of 2023, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant near the highway, near Zhytomyr, on the M-06 Kyiv-Chop highway, and the restaurant is located next to a WOG gas station.
“This is an example of a partnership project, the essence of which is that at a certain point on the highway, all the necessary range of services needed by motorists and travelers is formed. The same goes for the opportunity to eat. This is not competition, but a complement to each other and a choice for visitors. This year, we plan to implement such projects in regional centers, cities with a population of over a million or their satellites. For the next few years, we continue to consider locations to open McDonald’s restaurants in conjunction with gas stations on key highways,” said Stefurak.
At the same time, he emphasized that none of the key players or gas station chains has an exclusive right to work with McDonald’s.
“We focus exclusively on the location and weigh how well it meets our requirements. Of course, first of all, we work with key players. This is WOG, which you mentioned, and we are already cooperating with KLO. And now we are building our restaurant next to the OKKO filling station in Odesa, but this restaurant will be located in the city, not on the highway,” said Stefurak.
Such projects are not experimental, but part of a well-developed strategy that determines where it would be appropriate to build a new McDonald’s.
“We are open to cooperation with various partners, because the location has always been and remains the key for us,” said the chain’s development director.
The first McDonald’s restaurant in Ukraine was opened on May 24, 1997 in Kyiv.
As reported, on September 20, 2022, McDonald’s began a phased opening of restaurants in Ukraine. By February 24 of the same year, the chain had 109 restaurants in 24 cities across the country. As of spring 2024, there are 101 restaurants in operation.
At the end of 2023, it increased its revenue by 3.9 times compared to the previous year, up to UAH 12.9 billion, according to Opendatabot.
According to the financial results for 2023, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 1.29 billion, compared to a loss of UAH 2 billion in 2022.
The value of McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd’s assets amounted to UAH 5.54 billion, while the amount of liabilities increased 2.3 times to UAH 829.7 million.
The number of employees in 2023 increased by 7% to 9,614.
McDonald’s in Ukraine is a founding partner and the largest corporate partner of the Ronald McDonald House Foundation in Ukraine.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the participant of FDI in McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. is MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK).
The Latvian government has approved the transfer of a new military aid package to Ukraine, which includes anti-aircraft guns and a tactical unmanned surveillance system, Latvian Prime Minister Eвіка Silinia said.
“The government has just approved the transfer of NBS anti-aircraft guns, a tactical unmanned surveillance system and other necessary materials to the Ukrainian armed forces. This will help to improve both Ukraine’s air defense and intelligence capabilities,” she wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday.
“With each delivery, we demonstrate our friendship to the people of Ukraine and their fight against the aggressor Russia, which is the greatest threat to peace and security in the world. Latvia annually allocates 0.25% of its GDP for military assistance to Ukraine. We will continue to support Ukraine on a bilateral basis and together with our allies,” the Latvian Prime Minister added.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group has announced a tender offer to buy back up to $70 million of its Eurobonds due 2025 and 2026.
According to a stock exchange announcement by Metinvest B.V., the 2025 Eurobonds will be redeemed at a price ranging from 85% to 92% of the face value, depending on the results of the Dutch auction, while the redemption price of the 2026 bonds has not been determined and will depend on the results of the auction.
The bonds will be purchased for cash.
The offer is valid from April 29, 2024 and expires at 16:00 London time on May 8, 2024.
The Eurobonds due June 17, 2025 were issued in the amount of EUR300 million with a coupon of 5.625%, and the Eurobonds due April 23, 2026 were issued in the amount of $505 million with a coupon of 8.5%. Currently, they are outstanding by $234.195 million and $493.871 million, respectively.
“The rationale for the offer (to repurchase – IF-U) is to use the group’s liquidity outside Ukraine to actively manage the company’s debt burden, mitigate cash outflows for debt service, improve the group’s overall debt position, and reduce liquidity pressure in relation to the upcoming maturities of the 2025 bonds and 2026 bonds, given the group’s continued turbulent operating environment,” the tender offer explains.
It adds that the ongoing war in Ukraine, coupled with volatile commodity prices, presents unprecedented challenges for the company and its subsidiaries.
In addition, although as at 31 December 2023 the company and its subsidiaries outside Ukraine had sufficient cash balances to meet the company’s scheduled interest payment obligations for the foreseeable future, there are certain restrictions on the transfer of cash from its Ukrainian subsidiaries in accordance with the current decisions of the National Bank of Ukraine. And there is no guarantee that these restrictions will be lifted, the document says.
In turn, the proposals give bondholders the opportunity to reduce their risks in the context of the ongoing war. The group’s operations remain subject to a number of risks that are beyond management’s control, including, in particular, an increase in the intensity of Russian attacks on the front line; escalation of attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities and, as a result, disruption of the availability of the energy system for the group’s operations; uncertainty about the sustainability of Black Sea shipping; staff shortages due to mobilization in Ukraine; and volatile prices for key products.
These risks may adversely affect the price of Eurobonds in the future, the tender justification states.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. Its businesses are located in Ukraine – in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions – as well as in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
