Ukrzaliznytsia has repaired and reconstructed 351 km of track from the planned 1,935 km this year, the company’s press service has reported. In January-August 2018, the company reconstructed almost 184 km of track and overhauled more than 167 km, replaced 106 railroad switches for new sets. In September it is planned to reconstruct 36.1 km of track, overhaul 34 km of track, repair 118.6 km, and renew 55.4 km of track on various directions.
In general, it is planned in 2018 to repair 1,935 km of track and 1,317 sets of railroad switches. “Without an economically fair tariff, there will remain a maximum of 5,000 km out of 20,000 km of track in Ukrzaliznytsia in 10-15 years,” director for economics and finance at Ukrzaliznytsia Andriy Riazantsev said.
In the eight months of 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia invested almost UAH 8.5 billion in the development of its fixed assets, in particular, in modernization of infrastructure, the acquisition and repair of rolling stock.
Public joint-stock company United Mining-Chemical Company, managing Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Combine (Zhytomyr region), in four years after its creation has sent over UAH 1 billion in technical re-equipment and upgrade of assets, and its charter capital grew to UAH 3 billion in 2018 from UAH 1.9 billion in 2017. Acting Board Chairman Oleksandr Hladushko said in an interview posted on the company’s corporate website that on August 12, the company will celebrate the fourth anniversary.
“Our branches were returned from the lease to the management of United Mining-Chemical Company in September 2014. And the main task that the government put at that time was to increase the payments to the national budget, which is impossible without seeing profit… We successfully coped with this task: if in 2014 the state received taxes and mandatory payments from the company at the level of UAH 16.9 million, then in 2017 it was UAH 875.7 million,” Hladushko said. At the same time, he recalled that in 2017, the company paid dividends to the state in the amount of UAH 321.8 million, this year – almost UAH 333 million.
The head of the company pointed to the technical readiness of the branches to independently perform production tasks: “If immediately after the lease, the availability of special equipment did not exceed 50%, then in 2018 it grew almost twice thanks to investments and reached 90%, especially at Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine.
UDP Renewables, part of UFuture Group of Vasyl Khmelnytsky, has built a solar power plant with an installed capacity of 18 MW in Kherson region, the businessman said on his Facebook page. “UDP Renewables has built an 18 MW solar plant in Rykove (Kherson region). Considering the fact that the Kherson sun is much more efficient than in Kyiv, we plan to fully pay back the investment ($18 million) in five or six years. The station will be connected in a few months,” he wrote. Khmelnytsky added that during the construction of the solar plant, racks, cables and inverters of Ukrainian origin were used, while solar panels were imported from China. To build the station, according to the businessman, the territory of the former industrial zone, unusable for agriculture, was used.
As reported, earlier the group of Khmelnytsky built the first stage of a solar plant with a capacity of 6 MW in the village of Velyka Dymerka of Kyiv region. After the construction of the first stage, the group attracted Spanish-based Acciona Energia Global as a partner for the expansion of the project.
UFuture Investment Group, headquartered in Brussels, was established in autumn 2017 and united the business projects of Vasyl Khmelnytsky. The group includes the Ukrainian development company UDP, whose specialization is the implementation of large infrastructure projects. In addition, the conglomerate united businesses in such areas as UDP Renewables, the Bila Tserkva industrial park, the innovative parks UNIT.City, and LvivTech.City.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) early July launched the second line at Vinnytsia poultry farm, the company’s press service has reported.
According to the report, total investment in the second line was $300 million.
The company said that at present, production at the farm is around 280,000 tonnes of poultry a year. By 2020 it is planned to boost it to 560,000 tonnes.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct is the largest poultry producer in Ukraine. It is also engaged in production of grains, sunflower oil, and meat.
MHP supplies cooled semi-carcasses, which are processed, including at its enterprises in the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The company’s land bank as of late 2017 was around 370,000 ha.
The founder and majority shareholder in MHP is Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosiuk.
U.Ventures investment fund, founded by Western NIS Enterprise Fund, has invested $1.15 million in Ukraine’s startups YouTeam, 3DLook and Pufetto, the fund has said. “Ukraine has prominent product companies and startups that make revolutionary products and are highly competitive on a global market, and YouTeam, 3DLook, and Pufetto are dazzling examples of this. We are very pleased to invest in these startups and are convinced that they have a great potential to become leaders in its segments not only in Ukraine but worldwide,” President and CEO of Western NIS Enterprise Fund Jaroslawa Z. Johnson said.
3DLook, founded by Vadym Rohovsky, a serial entrepreneur from Odesa (the co-founder of the Clickky startup), in 2016, is an innovative solution for apparel retail and e-commerce that uses proprietary body measuring technology to make a perfect size and fit recommendations to consumers.
YouTeam, founded in Lviv in 2014, is a marketplace for hiring tech talent from software development firms.
Pufetto is a Ukrainian furniture manufacturer and e-commerce player that enables customers to customize its furniture (sofas, armchairs, beds) through its online platform and have it delivered to door within three of four weeks. Pufetto sells furniture through the proprietary online platform, as well as via show rooms in Ukraine and Germany.
Attracted investments will help startups to improve their products, hire new people and expand to new markets.
3DLOOK, FUND, INVESTS, PUFETTO, STARTUPS, U.VENTURES, YOUTEAM
The founder of the Ciklum outsourcing company, Danish entrepreneur Torben Majgaard, has invested in Andriy Kolodiuk’s AVentures Capital venture fund, which invests in innovative companies at early stages, and became a financial partner of the fund, the press service of AVentures Capital has reported.
The invested funds will be used to finance globally oriented Ukrainian start-ups and IT companies of different stages of development.
“In addition to AVentures Capital, previously Torben Majgaard joined financial partners and other funds from America and Europe, and in Ukraine for the first time. This is the indication that the Ukrainian venture ecosystem is not only competitive at the global level but also increasingly attractive to the world’s entrepreneurs and investors. In addition to Torben Majgaard, AVentures Capital’s financial partners are also ourselves, managing partners, as well as IT entrepreneurs of Ukraine and the United States,” Managing Partner of AVentures Andriy Kolodiuk said.
The press service refused to disclose the amount of investment, but clarified that the matter concerns a seven-digit figure (in dollars).
Majgaard stated if investments in joint projects are successful, he is ready to invest even more.
AVentures Capital was founded in 2012. It invests in projects at early stages. It is focused on cooperation with global companies that have R&D in Ukraine and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The fund focuses on investments in IT, including such areas as software, e-commerce, cloud services, mobile technologies, IoT, etc.
