The Ukrainian government has confirmed for a new term the powers of two of the six independent members of Oshchadbank’s supervisory board – Juan Enrique Perez Calot and Anton Pyatygin – and appointed new ones to replace their four colleagues.
“The four new members will replace Baiba Apin (head of the supervisory board – IF), Michael Weinstein, Peter Briggs and Janne Harjunpaa,” Oshchadbank said in a statement Monday.
It is pointed out that the previous board, which also includes five government representatives, approved a strategy to transform Oshchadbank into a commercially attractive institution, taking into account possible privatization. However, the implementation of this strategy was suspended because of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.
According to the press release, Michal Krupinski, Elizabeth Nelson, Philip Heasley and former Raiffeisen Bank Aval CEO and NEQSOL Holding Ukraine regional director Vladimir Lavrenchuk were appointed as new members of the supervisory board.
The bank does not give any other details about the new members of the NBU. Below is information from LinkedIn and the EBRD website about bankers and financiers with the same first and last names as the appointed new independent members of the SBU.
According to LinkedIn, Michal Krupinski is a senior advisor to Warburg Pincus and head of the board of Gemini Polska, and was also head of the board of the insurance company PZU and president of state bank Pekao S.A.
Philip Heasley was president and CEO of ACI Worlwide from 2005-2020, and now serves on the boards of Jopari Solutions Inc. and PayPower.
Elizabeth Nelson, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s website, has been a vice president there since 2012, including vice president of risk and compliance and director of risk management from late 2016 through late 2019. Prior to that, she worked as head of credit at the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA, now PRA) Division of Risk Professionals in the U.K., and even earlier had a 30-year career at JPMorgan Chase.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, by March 1, 2023 Oschadbank in terms of total assets was in second place (311.19 billion UAH) among the 65 operating banks in the country.
European stock indexes are down on Monday after the release of German economic confidence data and the first of many corporate reports this week.
The Stoxx Europe 600 composite index of the region’s largest companies lost 0.01% as of 12:33 p.m. and stood at 468.94 points.
France’s CAC 40 and Spain’s IBEX 35 were down 0.2%, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE 100 – 0.1%, Italy’s FTSE MIB – 0.9%.
On Friday all indicators, with the exception of the IBEX 35, were up.
Markets remain uncertain about the prospects for the global economy and fear further tightening of monetary policy, writes Trading Economics. In addition, investors this week expect the publication of performance indicators of banks Barclays, Santander, Deutsche Bank and UBS and giants of the consumer sector Nestle and Unilever.
Shares of the German software developer SAP go down in price by 1.3%. Also the leaders of reduction in Germany are shares of microprocessor manufacturer Infineon Technologies (-1%), stock exchange Deutsche Boerse (-1%), communications operator Deutsche Telekom (-0.9%), energy equipment manufacturer Siemens Energy (-0.9%) and energy company RWE (-0.8%).
In France, the market value of Vivendi media company declined by 1.9%, while cosmetics manufacturer L’Oreal – by 1.6%.
Oil companies followed the decline in oil prices, including TotalEnergies (SPB: TOT) down 0.4%, BP Plc (SPB: BP) – 0.7%, Shell (SPB: RDS.A) – 1%.
Endesa’s share price dropped 1.7% to €19.73. Analysts at RBC downgraded the fair value of the Spanish energy company to €19.5 from €20.
Meanwhile, the index of German business confidence in the country’s economy, calculated by the Ifo economic research institute, rose to 93.6 points in April from 93.3 points the previous month. This is the highest value since February 2022. The indicator has been rising for six months in a row. However, in April it failed to meet the expectations of analysts, who predicted an average increase to 94 points.
Shares of Swiss Credit Suisse are up 1.8%. The bank, which UBS agreed to buy, more than quadrupled its revenues in the first quarter and ended it with a net profit against a loss a year earlier.
Royal Philips NV of the Netherlands, which produces consumer goods and medical equipment, increased its net loss 4.4 times in January-March, but its sales and adjusted EBITDA exceeded experts’ forecasts. The company’s shares surged 11%.
The shares of the German Software AG rose by more than 49% on the news about the purchase of the software developer by the investment company Silver Lake for 2.2 billion euros. The estimate includes a 53% premium to the closing price level on April 20.
In addition, shares in the automotive sector go up: Mercedes-Benz Group up 0.9%, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (SPB: BMW) up 0.8%, Stellantis up 2.6%, Renault up 0.4%, Continental up 1%, Michelin up 0.6%.
Banks are also rising, including BNP Paribas, up 1.1%; Credit Agricole, up 0.9%; Societe Generale, up 0.8%; Barclays, up 0.7%; Deutsche Bank, up 0.9%; and Unicredit, up 1.5%.
NNEGC Energoatom President Petr Kotin and U.S. Holtec International President and CEO Chris Singh on April 21 signed an agreement on cooperation in the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs), which provides for construction of up to 20 SMR-160 reactors, with implementation of the first pilot project and reaching minimum regulated reactor capacity and grid connection by March 2029.
According to Energoatom’s Web site on Saturday, Kotin signed the agreement in Kiev and Singh signed it in Camden, New Jersey, USA. Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko and Riaz Awan, Holtec International’s vice president of operations in Ukraine, also attended the ceremony.
“The construction of the SMR in Ukraine will not only contribute to strengthening the energy security of the state, but will also make it possible to replace the thermal power capacity destroyed by Russian attacks and achieve the goals of decarbonization. Ukraine has a significant human resource potential for the development of leading nuclear technologies and will make every effort, particularly in cooperation and with American partners, to oust the Russian nuclear industry from the world market. MMR is a powerful technology which will also allow us to decentralize generation,” Galushchenko said.
According to Energoatom’s president, the agreement with Holtec International “is based on 20 years of successful cooperation between the companies.” “It will enable the introduction of promising, safe, clean, reliable and efficient small modular reactor technologies and make Ukraine the world’s leading country in clean energy,” Kotin said.
The document also envisages the deepening of cooperation between the companies to strengthen the energy security of Ukraine. In addition, the agreement will contribute to the universal decarbonization of the Ukrainian energy sector, strengthen Ukraine’s energy independence and begin high-tech production of parts for SMRs in our territories.
“We are grateful to esteemed Energy Minister Galushchenko and the esteemed President of Energoatom, representing the government of Ukraine, for restoring your nation’s confidence in our company by choosing our extremely safe SMR-160 reactors and Holtec International as a partner to meet the country’s clean energy needs…We are committed to helping the Ukrainian people rebuild their energy infrastructure when Russian aggressors are driven from the country,” Singh said at the signing ceremony.
According to Energoatom, Holtec International, their longtime partner, served as the contractor for the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility, which went into operation in April 2022.
The SMR-160 is a 160-MW pressurized light-water reactor that uses low-enriched uranium as fuel and is flexible to produce process heat for industrial applications and hydrogen production.
“Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It operates 15 power units equipped with water-water power reactors with a total installed electric capacity of 13.835 GW.
Zapad Banka (Montenegro) provided Prometey Group with a $2.5 million credit line to increase its working capital, structure trade deals and optimize its operations, the group’s press service said.
“We have a long partnership with this bank, they always support us. Despite our long cooperation, Zapad Banka, being a European bank, has high compliance requirements for us on a par with other clients,” the statement said.
Prometey is confident that trade financing under contracts with the end buyer will have a positive impact on the group’s financial stability. The line will also allow for more efficient use of trade financing, turning it around several times.
Prometey $1.5 million loan deal with the bank took place in late 2022, after which Zapad Banka decided to allocate a limit of $2.5 million for trade finance.
After several successful deals within the allocated funds Prometey expects to increase the limit of trade finance from its European partner.
The Prometey Group provides storage, processing and logistics services for crops. Before the Russian aggression the holding owned 34 elevators in the regions of Nikolayev, Kirovograd, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Zaporizhzhya, Sumy, Odessa, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk.
By the end of 2021, the group planned to receive $ 45 million EBITDA, while in 2020, this figure reached $ 32.6 million, and in 2019 – $ 30.5 million.
Oil prices of benchmark grades declined again on Monday.
Quotes rose on Friday, but at the end of the week they fell by more than 5%.
Traders are concerned that further tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks could worsen the global economy and reduce the demand for fuel, Trading Economics said.
These factors more than offset optimism about China’s economic recovery after the lifting of strict restrictions imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2022, writes MarketWatch.
Amid a deteriorating economic backdrop and still hawkish behavior by the Federal Reserve, there are no real positive reasons for oil market growth, analysts believe Sevens Report Research
Brent June futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange stood at $80.53 per barrel by 8:05 a.m., down $1.13 (1.4%) from the close of the previous session. Those contracts rose $0.56 (0.7%) to $81.66 per barrel on Friday.
Price of futures on WTI crude oil for June at electronic trades of New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell in the morning by $0.93 (1.2%) – down to $76.94 per barrel. At the end of previous session the cost of contracts rose by $0.5, or 0.7%, to $77.87 per barrel.
Last week the Brent quotations fell by 5.4% and WTI – by 5.5%.
The global IPO market is showing signs of recovery amid intensified initial public offerings in Asia, analysts believe.
According to calculations of Bloomberg agency, in March and April IPO in the world were carried out to the amount of about $ 25 billion, which almost doubles the figure for the first two months of this year.
Issuers from Hong Kong to Milan saw a window of opportunity as volatility in the markets declined. Activity over the past two months has been particularly buoyant in Asia, with local exchanges accounting for nearly 80% of April’s IPOs. The number of listings in Europe has also increased. Meanwhile, fears of a U.S. recession are scaring away U.S. issuers, slowing the full recovery of the global market.
On average, transaction sizes remain smaller than before. The amount of money raised in IPOs this year is about half what it was during the same period last year.
“We’re starting to see sprouts of activity, companies are resuming processes that were suspended, but there’s still a significant degree of uncertainty in the market,” says Jason Manketo, one of the heads of Linklaters law firm.
“The IPO market is coming back gradually and slowly,” notes Goldman Sachs Asia analyst James Wang. – It’s not back 100% yet, but there are signs of life and energy recovery.”
