The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Dnipro Municipal Energy Service Company (Dnipro) have signed a loan agreement on the allocation of EUR25 million in a loan to improve the energy efficiency of 98 public buildings, including 67 kindergartens, 27 schools and four clinics.
“Thanks to the agreement between Mayor Borys Filatov and the EBRD, today we’ve signed a loan to finance the second stage of a large energy saving project in the city’s buildings. This will create conditions that are more comfortable for the residents of our city,” the bank’s press service quotes deputy mayor of the city Eduard Pidlubny.
“The new loan builds on the successful implementation of a pilot project with Dnipro’s energy management company in 2020. Under the pilot financed by the EBRD, the E5P and the Clean Technology Fund, 33 schools and 48 kindergartens have been refurbished offering more comfort and greater energy efficiency,” the bank said on its website.
“The new financing will allow the city to maintain the pace of its energy efficiency investments in public buildings and will set an example for other Ukrainian cities to follow. Once the projects are completed, the city would have renovated almost 200 public buildings, the largest such effort in Ukraine,” Mark Magaletsky, the EBRD Deputy Director for Ukraine, said.
The EBRD’s board of directors reportedly approved the project last week.
The loan has a term of 13 years, including a grace period of up to three years, with 20 equal payments every six months. The loan will be secured by the city’s full municipal guarantee, the bank said.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could provide a senior loan of up to EUR 25 million to the communal company Dnipro Municipal Energy Servicing Company (Dniprovska Municipalna Energoservisna Kompanya, the city of Dnipro) for energy efficiency investments in 98 public buildings, including 67 kindergartens, 27 schools and 4 outpatient clinics.
“The investments are expected to result in strong improvement of buildings’ condition through renovation of facilities and meeting heating requirements, improved comfort level and reliability of services at kindergartens, schools and clinics, as well as reduction of energy and maintenance costs of the buildings and decrease of CO2 emissions,” the bank said on Tuesday.
The project is pending of the decision of the EBRD board on October 13.
According to the document, the loan maturity is up to 13 years, including up to three years grace, with 20 equal semi-annual repayments. The loan will be secured by a full municipal guarantee from the city.
The loan is expected to be co-financed by up to EUR 5.5 million investment grant from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), subject to grant approval by the E5P Assembly of Contributors.
The local contribution of up to EUR 2.5 million will cover additional energy conservation measures and capital repairs.
The EBRD said that the loan will be a sub-project under the Public Sector Energy Efficiency Financing Framework (PSEEF), consisting of municipal-guaranteed loans to municipal energy management companies in Ukraine to facilitate critical improvements in energy efficiency measures in public buildings in a number of cities across Ukraine.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine this spring will put the Dnipro Hotel located downtown Kyiv at the starting price of $10 million. “In order for its [the hotel’s] final cost to increase at times, a new director, Elina Sapozhkova, has been recently appointed,” the fund said on its website.
According to Sapozhkova, who previously had experience in opening, developing and managing hotels of the international chains Rezidor Hotel Group, IHG, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt, the main value of the Dnipro Hotel is its location on European Square in the center of Kyiv and the views from the rooms.
The fund said that it has 23 large facilities for privatization, of which five are planned to be completed this year.
Work on a possible deal to acquire Credit Dnipro Bank by Oleksandr Yaroslavsky from Victor Pinchuk is ongoing. “Work is ongoing. It will be a good business, if you manage to buy. There is experience, you know that we probably have the most successful experience in working in the financial sector with UkrSibbank,” Yaroslavsky told Interfax-Ukraine at the Ukrainian House in Davos, organized by the Pinchuk Foundation, WNISEF and Horizon Capital.
According to him, with the proper operation of the bank, the need for its constant capitalization by the shareholder will disappear.
Yaroslavsky also said that he was ready to take part in large privatization, but so far the facilities offered by the State Property Fund have a lot of problems. “Everything sounds so good, but when you know the inside situation, it doesn’t look very good,” the businessman said.
In particular, with the case of the United Mining and Chemical Company, he pointed out the need to deal with property issues, in the case of the Odesa Port-Side Plant, there is a debt of $250 million to the structures of Dmytro Firtash.
“Elektrotyazhmash is also an interesting enterprise, but it is unclear in what condition it is. And 85% of the market is Russia,” Yaroslavsky added.
Dnipro Airport in 2019 increased passenger traffic to 338,888 people, which is 13.2% more than in 2018 (299,250).
According to the airport’s website, passenger traffic on international flights last year amounted to 198,190 people, on domestic flights some 140,698 people.
In December 2019, the airport passenger flow was 2.8% more than the figure for the same month of 2018 and amounted to 20,253 people.
As reported, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Oleksandr Bondarenko at the end of November 2019 said that the construction of a new airfield of the international airport in Dnipropetrovsk region will begin in the summer of 2020. The new international terminal and VIP terminal in a single complex will be built by the Ukrainian industrial and financial group DCH. It is planned that it will have a high throughput of up to 1,000 people/hour.
The total cost of the project is $180 million.
Cargo transportation along the Dnipro River in January-October 2019 increased by 22.6% compared to the same period a year earlier, to 9.655 million tonnes.
According to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, the number of trips on the Dnipro River during this period decreased by 30.7%, to 9,972.
Transportation of metal products increased by 24.1%, to 1.374 million tonnes, grain doubled, to 3.916 million tonnes. At the same time, transportation of construction materials and other goods fell by 5.4%, to 4.328 million tonnes, petroleum products by 37.6%, to 37,400 tonnes.
As reported, in 2018 river transportation in Ukraine amounted to 16.5 million tonnes of cargo.
The volume of traffic along the Dnipro River last year increased by 22.4% compared to 2017 and amounted to about 9.9 million tonnes.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, for 2016-2018 the volume of grain transportation along the Dnipro River rose by 180%, construction materials by 130%.
In 2018, the volume of traffic by inland waterways increased by 112% compared to 2013-2015 and amounted to 9.9 million tonnes.
