The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing Kormotech, a leading Ukrainian pet food producer, with a financing package to increase exports and geographic diversification by building a second pet food plant in Lithuania, the EBRD press service reports.
According to the release, the total cost of the Kormotech project will be EUR63 million.
The allocated financing package is a EUR40 million A/B syndicated loan, of which EUR20 million will be provided by the Dutch SDG-focused asset management fund ILX Fund.
The bank has previously provided EUR 15 million to Kormotech Group, a long-standing EBRD client, for the construction of its first plant in Lithuania, which began operations in June 2020. The bank also provided a EUR3.3 million loan to the company to replenish working capital during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The EBRD loan is accompanied by grant financing, including a grant from the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund, which partially covers the costs of external lawyers. The grant funding will also partially cover the cost of new workplace equipment that will create new livelihoods for groups that need more attention, including women and people with disabilities. This component is being implemented as part of the EBRD’s new program aimed at stimulating capital investment.
The loan is provided to the Group’s holding company Vengast Investments Ltd (Cyprus) and its subsidiary in Lithuania, Kormotech UAB.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war in 2022, the bank has provided EUR 5 billion to the Ukrainian economy and agreed with shareholders to increase capital by EUR 4 billion, which will allow it to continue lending at current levels during the war and further increase volumes during the full-scale recovery phase.
Kormotech is a global family-owned company with Ukrainian roots that has been producing cat and dog food under the Optimeal, Club 4 Paws, Woof! and Meow! brands since 2003. The company has production facilities in Ukraine and the EU, with a product range of over 650 items. Its focus on exports and geographic diversification helps it withstand the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The new project will also help Kormotech strengthen its human resources and skills development efforts in light of the current challenging situation on the Ukrainian labor market, including creating new employment and training opportunities for women, veterans, and other groups that require more attention. It will also enable Kormotech to improve energy efficiency.
In 2023, Kormotech’s turnover increased by 22.5% to $152 million from $124 million in 2022. The ratio of sales abroad and in Ukraine in tons is now 31% to 69%, respectively (in 2022 it was 28% to 72% in Ukraine).
Kormotech brands grew most dynamically in the markets of Romania (+35%), Poland (+11%) and Moldova (+11%).
Kormotech is a leader in Ukraine, one of the world’s top 50 pet food producers and one of the top 21 most dynamic pet food brands. The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Olena and Rostyslav Vovk.
Turkish defense company Baykar intends to complete the construction of a plant near Kyiv in August 2025, the company’s CEO Haluk Bayraktar told Reuters.
“We have completed 80% of the construction and are now ordering vehicles. The date of production will be determined by the course of the war, but the facility will be ready in August 2025,” Bayraktar told the agency in an interview on Thursday.
The plant is expected to produce the TB2 or its heavier TB3 variant.
Baykar currently uses Ukrainian-made engines for its Akinci and Kizilelma drones. The company also recently signed an agreement with Ukraine’s Ivchenko-Progress to jointly develop a turbofan engine, Baykar said.
Over the next five years, Baykar will invest $300 million to develop a turboprop engine for the Akinci drone. This will be followed by the development of a turbofan engine for Kizilelma, an unmanned air-to-air combat vehicle currently undergoing flight testing.
Baykar will keep the capacity of the TB2 and Akinci production lines at the same level, and over the next few years will invest in the expansion of the TB3 and Kizilelma lines. The Kizilelma is expected to start mass production next year in the amount of 10 units. Baykar’s revenue last year was $2 billion, up from $1.4 billion the previous year, with 90% coming from foreign markets.
The company accounts for about a third of all Turkish exports of defense and aerospace products.
As previously reported, Turkish-made Bayraktar drones have gained wide popularity in the world after the Ukrainian military began using them to counter Russian troops, destroying armored vehicles and artillery systems. In February, it was reported that the Baykar plant in Ukraine would employ about 500 people and produce about 120 units per year.
In Nikolaev region is planned to build a river grain terminal with a transshipment capacity of 10 thousand tons of grain per day, according to the website Dream.Projects of the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories (Ministries of Communities and Territories).
“The terminal will provide grain reception by both road and rail transport with subsequent shipment to barges of the “River-More” class and bulk carriers of the Panamax class,” reads the description of the project submitted by the Voznesenska territorial community.
The terminal will have two lines for receiving grain from cars equipped with automatic unloaders, as well as a line for receiving grain from railroad cars. The facility will be equipped with two grain cleaning machines and two continuous shaft-type grain dryers for processing raw materials. Metal silos, with which the terminal will be equipped, will allow simultaneous storage of up to 40 thousand tons of grain, which will allow efficient formation of shipment batches.
It is planned to install transport systems with the capacity of 300-500 tons per hour at the terminal, which will ensure uninterrupted and timely shipment of grain to ships.
The approximate duration of construction of the facility is 24 months.
Ruukki Energy sandwich panels were used for the construction of the NOVUS Logistics Center, the first BREEAM-certified food logistics complex in Ukraine, the Rauta press service reports.
“Especially for the logistics terminal, Rauta specialists, which is the exclusive importer of Ruukki sandwich panels in Ukraine, have developed a project of enclosing structures with unique nodes that provide maximum airtightness and significant cost savings during the operation of the facility,” said Rauta Director Andriy Ozeychuk.
As reported, in the spring of 2024, Novus Ukraine LLC, which operates the Novus hyper- and supermarket chain, launched the NOVUS Logistics Center in Kyiv, built according to the BREEAM green building principles with loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The complex was BREEAM certified at the design stage, and now, after commissioning, the company is preparing the facility to receive the international BREEAM certificate for new buildings, rating Good.
With an area of more than 50 thousand square meters and a height of 15 meters, NOVUS Logistics Center is designed for 5.2 thousand pallet spaces and has 18 temperature zones – from -30 to +24 degrees Celsius.
According to Konstantin Parshin, Head of Operational Logistics at NOVUS, thanks to the use of Ruukki sandwich panels, the temperature inside the main room does not fall below the set 15 degrees in winter and does not rise above 20 degrees in summer.
The release emphasizes that the use of Ruukki Energy sandwich panels ensured the building’s airtightness up to q50 = 0.01 m3/h∙m2 and thermal resistance of structures up to R = 7.47 (m2∙K)/W, which are the best indicators for cold storage warehouses.
Founded in 2014, Rauta Group LLC (Rauta) is an engineering and construction company engaged in the design, supply and installation of sandwich panels, ventilated facades and prefabricated buildings. It is the exclusive importer of commercial products from the Finnish concern Ruukki to Ukraine, as well as the developer of a number of innovations that reduce the cost and time of construction.
CONSTRUCTION, NOVUS, OZEYCHUK, RAUTA, RUUKKI, SANDWICH PANELS
Kyiv Metro has signed a contract to continue construction of the Syretsko-Pecherska subway line in the direction of the Vynohradar residential area, with Avtostrada Group LLC winning the tender.
According to the website of the Kyiv City State Administration, the construction period is set at 30 months and the cost of the works is UAH 13 billion 785 million. The procurement was conducted on the Prozorro public procurement platform.
“We are currently in the process of obtaining all the permits required by law and handing over the construction sites to the contractor. After that, construction work will begin,” the statement said.
The city administration emphasized that the construction of the subway will not only solve transportation problems, but will also provide residents of the Podil district with “round-the-clock reliable shelters.”
According to the Kyiv City State Administration, the right-hand tunnel has already been built, stretching almost 1,250 meters from Mostytska station to Syrets station. In addition, the construction of the main structures of the distillation ventilation unit has been completed. Also, the wall-in-soil method of enclosing structures and the metal structures for the pit have been partially installed. The main structures of the combined traction substation were constructed, and two-tier tunnels were partially constructed.
In December 2023, Kyiv Metro terminated the contract with Kyivmetrobud JSC in court due to the failure to meet the deadlines for construction work. The court is considering the recovery of a part of the prepayment, the use of which is not confirmed by the relevant acts of work performed, as well as penalties.
Prices for construction and installation works in Ukraine in June 2024 increased by 8.4% compared to June 2023, reported the State Statistics Service (Gosstat).
According to the State Statistics Service, in June 2024 to June 2023 prices increased in all segments of construction: in residential construction growth amounted to 8.9%, in non-residential – 9%, in engineering – 7.7%. Compared to May of this year, prices increased by 1%, 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.
At the end of the second quarter, prices for construction work rose by 8.1% year-on-year in April-June 2023, and at the end of the first half of the year – by 9.7% compared to the same period a year earlier.
As reported, in 2023, prices for construction works increased by 15.8% year-on-year.
The State Statistics Committee pointed out that the indicators are given without taking into account the temporarily occupied territories and part of the territories where there are (were) hostilities.
