NEFCO (Nordic Environment Finance Corporation) has 117 projects in Ukraine for an estimated amount of EUR 180 million, on which agreements have been signed and which are under implementation.
“As of June 7, NEFCO has 117 projects, on which agreements have been signed and which are under implementation in Ukraine, and the total investment in these projects is approximately EUR 180 million,” the corporation said in response to Interfax-Ukraine’s request.
Of these projects, agreements for seven new projects were signed in 2021. The total amount of investments for them is about EUR 4 million.
In addition to them, many other projects are in development and at the preparatory stage, the corporation said.
At the same time, NEFCO said that, having decided to abandon investments in new projects in the renewable energy sector in 2020, the organization, to support the sustainable development of Ukraine, will continue developing and financing municipal projects in such sectors as energy efficiency, district heating and wastewater treatment.
“Special attention is paid to small and medium-sized projects, as well as those that are examples of how to respond to technological advances. Financing projects in the municipal sector in Eastern Europe is one of the three main directions of NEFCO’s strategy for the next five years,” the corporation said.
At the same time, NEFCO also drew attention to the fact that the decision to stop financing projects in the renewable energy sector “is based solely on the fact that agreements on feed-in tariffs are not being implemented.”
At the same time, they called the initiative to introduce an excise tax on electricity from renewable energy sources as erroneous, pointing out that in fact clean energy should be subsidized, and fossil resources should be taxed with CO2 emission tax.
The Finance Ministry, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ukrgasbank have started assessing and structuring the financial took allowing IFC to enter the capital of this state-owned bank, the Finance Ministry reported.
“This is the most important stage in the implementation of the fundamentals of the strategic reform of the public banking sector… IFC’s entry into Ukrgasbank’s capital will be a powerful signal for international investors and will contribute to the further development of the banking system in general,” Finance Minister Oksana Markarova said.
The Finance Ministry said that the transition to this stage became possible as a result of the successful fulfillment of the terms of the tripartite memorandum of understanding signed in November 2017 to support the privatization (sale) of the bank by the ministry and Ukrgasbank.
According to the memorandum, IFC helped Ukrgasbank to strengthen corporate governance, ensure its operational independence, and further improve its stable banking model based on commercial viability.
Successful cooperation between the state-owned bank and IFC has already allowed for more than 145 projects in the field of clean energy using biofuels, hydropower, solar and wind energy with a total capacity of 866 MW, which is a quarter of all renewable energy facilities in Ukraine. Thanks to these projects, CO2 emission reduction has reached more than 1 million tonnes annually.
As reported, in November 2017, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance agreed on cooperation with IFC in the process of privatization of Ukrgasbank. The memorandum of cooperation also envisaged a possibility of entering the capital of the bank by IFC to support its sale. The investment will depend on several factors, including the outcome of the due diligence of the bank.
Ukrgasbank was established in 1993 and the state represented by the Ministry of Finance owns 94.9% of its shares. Since 2015, the bank has been included in the list of state-owned facilities of strategic importance for the economy and national security.
The Board of the World Bank has approved the provision of a long-term loan of $12.5 million to Nyva Pereyaslavschyny, the largest group of pig companies in Ukraine. According to a posting on the website of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the decision was made on April 25, 2018. The funds will be sent to finance the company’s 2018-2019 capital expansion program. The total cost of the project is $35 million.
As reported, at the end of April 2015 the IFC issued $25 million loans to Nyva Pereyaslavschyny to support the plans of the group to expand operations and refinance medium-term debt.
The Nyva Pereyaslavschyny group of companies cultivates about 23,000 hectares of land. Its grain storage capacity is about 150,000 tonnes, the annual export of grains is 100,000 tonnes. The group includes nine pig breeding complexes. The work to collect permits for the construction of the tenth farm has been started. The group plans in 2018 to build a new specialized meat processing plant with a capacity of 240 animals per hour.
