Nova Poshta group of companies plans to invest $100 million in infrastructure development in 2020, co-owner of the company Volodymyr Popereshniuk wrote on his Facebook page. “We plan $100 million investment in the development of Nova Poshta for 2020. For us, this is an unprecedented amount, but we need to start sometime. I already said that Nova Poshta had not yet developed, but only trained. Now we are starting!” he declared.
This year, the company plans to launch the second phase of Kyiv Innovation Center, increasing the capacity to 50,000 parcels per hour (with a prospect of up to 60,000).
It is also planned to build four large innovation centers with an automated sorting system in Brovary, Dnipro, Odesa, and Kharkiv.
“The capacity of each will be up to 20,000 parcels per hour. We will also build, update and equip dozens of other terminals in Ukrainian cities with modern equipment,” he said.
In addition, Nova Poshta plans to build the first cargo terminal with a robotic system for sorting pallets and bulky goods, to modernize branches and introduce new equipment to increase the speed of customer service.
“We plan to purchase scooters, pickups, minibuses and intercity containers,” the co-owner of the company said.
According to him, most of the investment will be used for information technology and the development of mobile services.
Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) plans to invest UAH 1.2 billion in production development in 2020, which is 30% more than last year, and also increase the number of staff. According to the company’s press service, with reference to executive director of Farmak Volodymyr Kostiuk, in 2019 investments for these purposes amounted to UAH 900 million.
“In 2019, we invested about UAH 900 million in the development of production, in 2020 we plan to invest UAH 1.2 billion. The expansion of production leads to an increase in the number of personnel,” he said.
According to Kostiuk, the issue of personnel remains acute for the company.
“We create the most comfortable working conditions for specialists and provide competitive wages. Today we compete with European companies in terms of wages in relation to the average check in a particular country. In 2019, wages at Farmak increased by 14%,” he said.
The top manager also said that in 2019 Farmak expanded its cold, allergological, neurological, gastroenterological product portfolios and is working on complex drugs that it plans to bring to the market in 10-15 years.
The main areas remain cold, endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological portfolios.
Vagif Aliyev, the founder of PrJSC Mandarin Plaza, the investor and developer of Kyiv-based Lavina shopping center, on November 20 launched the first stage of the Blokbuster Mall shopping and entertainment center in Bandery Avenue in Kyiv, investing $400 million in construction. According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, only a Silpo supermarket has started working in the facility. The rest of the stores will be launched on a fan-based basis as they are ready, the founder of Nai Ukraine, the project broker, Vitaliy Boiko, said.
According to him, the cost of investments in the construction of the Blokbuster Mall shopping center was $400 million. The total area of the first stage is 200,000 square meters, the leased area is 110,000 square meters. After the launch of the second phase, which is at an early stage of construction, the total area will be 300,000 square meters, the rental area some 200,000 square meters. The facility is located on a plot of 30 hectares.
“Vagif Aliyev’s pipeline now contains projects for EUR2.9 billion (12 projects of shopping and entertainment centers). This is the second largest indicator in the world in terms of development of retail real estate. Westfield is the first developer in the world with EUR8 billion, and the third one is one of the largest European investors with EUR2.5 billion. The uniqueness is also that all Mandarin Plaza projects are located in one city – Kyiv,” Boiko said at a briefing.
Caspian Service developer (Azerbaijan) intends to invest $7 million in its first own development project in Ukraine, the BASA City residential complex of the comfort+ class in the village of Khodosivka (Kyiv-Sviatoshynsky district, Kyiv region). “BASA City is the first full-scale project of Caspian Service in Ukraine as a developer. Despite temporary difficulties due to political processes, the Ukrainian housing market is very promising. The pilot project is being implemented in the comfort+ class, since, according to our estimates, today this is the most demanded and least risky segment in residential construction,” Chingiz Kishiyev, the CEO of Caspian Service in Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the project includes nine five- to seven-storey houses, designed for 504 apartments. The land plot is located on the lake, not far from the Manufactura outlet village. Its area is 3.5 hectares, the total construction area is 35,000 square meters. The project will be implemented in two phases. The commissioning of the first of them is planned for the first quarter of 2021.
The expert noted the plan for the long term is to enter the segment of business and premium class housing in Ukraine.
“We also intend to develop business and premium class housing, as the company has gained successful experience in implementing such projects in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and other CIS countries: we have built dozens of high-quality projects,” he stressed.
Caspian Service was founded in 2001. Its portfolio includes 71 projects in Azerbaijan, six in Kazakhstan, two in Georgia, one in Poland, eight in Ukraine. Since its foundation, the company has built and commissioned about 1.5 million square meters of facilities.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky calls on international partners to invest in the development of small towns in the country and emphasizes that the beginning of such a process has been launched in Mariupol.
“Our idea is to start the development from Mariupol. That is why the investment forum is taking place here, in eastern Ukraine. A city once liberated can become truly European,” the president said at a meeting with Vice President of the International Finance Corporation Georgina Baker, World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Satu Kahkonen and Regional Manager of the International Finance Corporation in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Jason Pellmar as part of the RE: THINK. Invest in Ukraine Forum in Mariupol, the presidential press service said.
He thanked the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation for their assistance with reform implementation. “You have seen how many bills have already been adopted. We are now starting to implement them,” the president said.
In addition, the head of state thanked the International Finance Corporation for the implementation of the transport project in Mariupol. He expressed hope that similar projects would appear in other cities of Ukraine.
Zelensky said he was ready to protect the investments and called for investing in the development of small settlements. “In particular, we need investments to build new schools, hospitals, roads and bridges,” the president said.
DEVELOPMENT, INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS, INVEST, SMALL SETTLEMENTS
Ukrainian businessman, the owner of the DCH Group, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky is ready to invest $100 million in construction of a new Donetsk airport.
“I have been thinking for a long time and have decided to give $100 million and build a new airport in Donetsk. Considering that I understand this, our company has experience in both construction and operation, I am ready to build the new airport on the site of the completely destroyed old one,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday in Mariupol on the sidelines of the First Investment Forum.
Yaroslavsky said that the airport will become a symbol of the return of peaceful life.
The businessman said that the implementation of this project will be possible after the completion of the process of reintegration of the occupied territories of Donbas into Ukraine.
