APS Holding (Prague, the Czech Republic), a large provider of investment and recovery services in Central Europe, jointly with Avistar (Kyiv), which has been operating on the Ukrainian toxic assets market for over nine years, is launching a pilot project – Gefest Group, Avistar Managing Partner Yuri Kostrobiy said at a briefing. According to him, under the Gefest Group pilot project, it is planned to build a service and investment structure with the introduction of a modern IT system throughout the entire cycle of work with toxic debts based on EU standards. Building an efficient service mechanism, procedures for servicing and working with distress assets is the main task of the pilot project, Kostrobiy said.
Director of the Department for Consolidated Sale of Assets of the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Ukraine Taras Yeleiko said at the briefing that APS Holding’s entry into the Ukrainian market is a landmark event for the Ukrainian non-performing loan (NPL) market.
“We are happy that such players as APS enter Ukraine who can move our market to the best global practices and make this movement irreversible,” he said.
The Deposit Guarantee Fund is one of the key players in the NPL market, which manages assets totaling more than EUR 18 billion, which were received as a result of the bankruptcy of more than 90 banks in the period from 2014 to 2018.
Ukraine in January-May 2019 increased exports of titanium containing ore and concentrate in kind by 6.1% compared to January-May 2018, to 257,369 tonnes. According to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service, over the period exports of titanium ore and concentrate in monetary terms increased by 23.5%, to $62.121 million.
Major exports were made to Egypt (19.94% of deliveries in monetary terms), Mexico (16.52%), and the Czech Republic (14.72%).
Ukraine in January-May 2019 imported 243 tonnes of similar products worth $171,000 from Senegal, while in January-May 2018 it imported 15,457 tonnes of titanium ore and concentrate worth $2.854 million from Senegal.
As reported, Ukraine in 2018 increased exports of titanium containing ore and concentrate in kind by 2.7% compared to 2017, to 599,494 tonnes. Last year exports of titanium ore and concentrate in monetary terms increased by 19.5%, to $125.722 million. Major exports were made to the Czech Republic (19.41% of deliveries in monetary terms), Turkey (17.96%), and Russia (15.68%).
Ukraine in 2018 imported 15,874 tonnes of similar products worth $3.142 million from Senegal and Mozambique, while in 2017 it imported 202 tonnes of titanium ore and concentrate worth $143,000 from Senegal (87.41%), Finland (10.49%), and Iran (2.1%).
Vilnohirsk state mining and metallurgical combine (Dnipropetrovsk region), Irshansk state mining and processing combine (Zhytomyr region), Valki-Ilmenite and Mezhdurechensk Mining and Concentration Complexes (both are located in Irshansk, Zhytomyr region) are the main producers of titanium ore in Ukraine.
Dnipro-based Velta production and commercial firm built a mining and processing complex at the Birzulivske ilmenite deposit, which has a 240,000-tonne ilmenite concentrate capacity per year.
Holding company Velta Group Global Ltd. was registered in London in November 2011.