DTEK Energy, amid low coal stocks at its TPPs’ warehouses, has begun importing thermal coal from Kazakhstan and is negotiating coal supplies from Poland and the United States, the company’s press service has said.
According to the press service, DTEK Energy is actively looking for opportunities to provide TPPs with additional imported coal.
“Despite the increased demand for coal on global markets, we are actually starting to import it. The first batch from Kazakhstan is already on its way. Next week we expect the start of coal supplies from Poland. We are also negotiating the supply of shiploads from the United States,” CEO of DTEK Energy Ildar Saleev said.
According to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, coal stocks in the warehouses of thermal power plants of five power generating companies (DTEK Dniproenergo, DTEK Zakhidenergo, DTEK Skhidenergo, Centrenergo and Donbasenergo) as of Wednesday morning dropped to 754,000 tonnes, which is almost 500,000 tonnes less than the accumulation schedule approved by the ministry on August 11 (1.237 million tonnes).
The founder and majority shareholder of the Ukrainian agricultural holding KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov plans to build a pig-breeding complex in Kazakhstan for 200,000 heads, investments will amount to $50 million, the press service of the company told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
“Kazakhstan has an advantageous geographical position, a land border with China. There is no African swine fever, which today is the main obstacle for many countries in the world to export pork to the Chinese market. There is a great interest of the government of Kazakhstan in supporting and creating conditions for such a project, but there are no people with experience in creating such enterprises from scratch. KSG Agro has both qualified personnel and experience in raising purebred pigs,” the press service of the company quoted Kasianov as saying.
The press service of the agricultural holding said that the Swiss companies participating in the project will supply technologies and animals of Swiss genetics to Kazakhstan. In particular, one of the investors is KS Genetic (Switzerland), which is chaired by Filippo Lombardi, ex-chairman of the Council of States of Switzerland.
The project of the livestock complex includes two sow farms with 4,000 sows each, which will make it possible to keep 200,000 heads of pigs per year, as well as a feed mill. The annual design production capacity is about 20,000 tonnes of meat.
According to Kasianov, the prospective markets for the products are China, Vietnam and South Korea.
The press service of KSG Agro said that it is not yet planned to attract credit or own funds of the Ukrainian agricultural holding for the implementation of the Kazakh project.
Currently, negotiations are underway with a number of potential investors on financial participation in the Kazakh project. The issue of attracting investors to the charter capital of KSG Agro for the development of the company’s meat processing facilities and its entry into new markets for finished products of the livestock industry is also being discussed.
Kaspi Pay, a 100% subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s Kaspi.kz JSC, has signed a sale and purchase agreement for 100% of Portmone Group, an independent provider of payment and money transfer services in Ukraine, which is majority owned by Europe Virgin Fund (EVF).
“The acquisition of Portmone puts our Payments Platform in a strong position to end into Ukraine,” according to Kaspi’s semi-annual report on the London Stock Exchange.
According to the report, subject to anti-monopoly approval in Ukraine and Kazakhstan and approval by the National Bank of Ukraine, this transaction is expected to complete in the final quarter of 2021. The report said that upon successful closing the acquisition of Portmone also gives Kaspi.kz a payments license and Visa and Mastercard accreditation in Ukraine. In the medium-term, Ukraine can also become an important source of IT talent and a development hub for Kaspi.kz.
It is noted that Ukraine is characterized by high cash penetration (44% cash withdrawals), low e-commerce penetration at 8% of retail, low unsecured consumer lending at less than 4.5% of GDP and over 70% smartphone penetration.
Oleh Gorokhovskyi, the co-founder of virtual monobank serving over 3 million clients, predicted on Facebook that the new owner of Portmone would increase competition in the market.
“Kaspi is a global fintech star. The company’s valuation has doubled since the recent IPO and is already $13 billion. I love strong competitors. They are very motivating and mobilize the team,” Gorokhovskyi said.
At the same time, he doubted Kaspi’s ability to gain leadership in the Ukrainian market.
“In payments, they will have to compete with completely free payments from mono. In acquiring, in which they are strong in Kazakhstan, they will have to learn all the charms of government interference with the regulation of this market and compete not only with us and Privat, but also with Apple and Google Pay. Even in Kazakhstan, they got a marketplace – in Ukraine, this will also be difficult,” the co-founder of monobank said.
EVF, a regional private equity fund organized by Dragon Capital in 2010, acquired a majority stake in Portmone. The fund’s participants were Dragon Capital, EBRD, the Swiss sovereign wealth fund Obviam, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank and other investors.
Kaspi.kz operates on three platforms – marketplace, fintech platform and payment system. The company’s shareholders are Baring Vostok funds – 28.82%, Vyacheslav Kim – 23.25%, and Mikhail Lomtadze – 22.44%.
Ukraine is interested in deepening trade with Kazakhstan in the industrial and food sectors, First Deputy Prime Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko said, following the results of the 14th meeting of the Joint Ukrainian-Kazakhstani Interstate Commission on Economic Cooperation.
“In our opinion, the indicators of mutual trade do not correspond to our capabilities. We, as a reliable trading partner and top exporter of agricultural products, are interested in increasing the volume of trade in agricultural and food products,” the Economy Ministry press service said, citing First Deputy Prime Minister.
“At the same time, we are focused on deepening bilateral cooperation in the industrial sector, in particular, in industrial cooperation in agricultural machinery, automotive technology, aircraft construction and light industry,” Liubchenko said.
The meeting of the commission from Kazakhstan was attended by Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhita Sultanova, as well as Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Ukraine Darkhan Kaletaev and government representatives.
The sides discussed a number of issues on the development of bilateral cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure, energy, science and technology, investment, industry, space, healthcare, transport and transit. They also touched upon tourism, IT, cooperation in public procurement under the WTO agreement, the ministry said.
In addition, the Ukrainian side proposed to the Kazakh side to consider the possibility of investing in Ukrainian industrial parks. In addition, Kazakhstani companies were offered to take part in the concession in Ukraine, the Economy Ministry said.
As a result of the meeting, a relevant protocol on economic cooperation, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Economy Ministry of Ukraine and the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan on cooperation in bilateral trade and a Memorandum of Cooperation in the public-private partnership (PPP) between the PPP Agency were signed and JSC Kazakhstan Public-Private Partnership Center, according to the statement.
Kazakhstan is increasing the number of regular flights with Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and the Maldives.
The relevant decision was made by the interdepartmental commission to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the civil aviation committee of the Kazakh Industry and Infrastructure Development Ministry said on Wednesday.
Thus, in accordance with the interdepartmental commission’s decision, the number of flights to Russia will increase by seven in general, from three to 10 flights per week on each side. This includes the number of Nur-Sultan-Moscow flights increasing from two to four per week on each side and Almaty-Moscow flights increasing from one to four per week on each side. Shymkent-Moscow flights, one per week on each side, and Aktau-Moscow, one per week on each side, are resumed.
The number of flights to the Maldives is up from four to seven per week for Kazakh companies on the Almaty-Male route.
The number of Almaty-Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) flights is increasing from two to three per week.
Along with this, the number of flights to Uzbekistan is increasing from three to four (on each side) due to one more Nur-Sultan-Tashkent flight per week. Since September 11, one flight has been performed on the Nur-Sultan-Tashkent route and two on the Almaty-Tashkent route.
The number of flights to Ukraine is increasing to two, due to the resumption of one flight per week on the Nur-Sultan-Kyiv route. In August 2020, flights on the Almaty-Kyiv route were resumed.
The first container train on the China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-Ukraine new route, which delivered 41 containers with refrigeration equipment, has arrived in Ukraine.
The press service of Ukrzaliznytsia said on Thursday morning that the train had been on the way for 19 days.
Work is underway on the frequency of the train running once a week. “If there is sufficient cargo, the frequency of running will be increased and the train will run according to a clear schedule,” the press service said.
Work on the route’s capacity filling continues, “especially in the direction of receiving subsidies from China for cargo, so that the conditions of cargo transportation are economically attractive for carriers.”
In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia is developing an online service to enable customers to order a container seat on a train and pay for the service online, similar to purchasing tickets for passenger trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia recalled that direct container trains from China to Ukraine began to run on the territory of four countries from June 8, 2020. During this time, 13 trains have already arrived.
Container traffic accounts for 2.3% of the total volume of cargo transportation by rail in Ukraine. Currently, 36 container trains organized by Ukrzaliznytsia run on a regular basis across Ukraine.
