The founder of Mandarin Plaza company, investor and developer in Lavina, Blockbuster, Ocean Mall and other shopping centers, Vagif Aliyev, has said that he plans to acquire Ocean Plaza mall by autumn 2019.
“We are still negotiating. I think we will buy first phase of Ocean Plaza by the autumn… and connect with Ocean Mall shopping center. Therefore, please, those [shops] which are located in Ocean Plaza, please consider Blockbuster and Lavina, because I think I will buy it by the autumn. I will not leave any brand there [in Ocean Plaza shopping center], no matter what it is. I think all contracts will be terminated because we are moving systematically, and with this system we will go across Ukraine,” the businessman said during a closed-up tour for retailers at the Blockbuster Mall shopping center.
According to him, the opening of the first phase of the Blockbuster shopping center is scheduled for May 31, the launch of the second phase is planned for the autumn.
As reported, in February 2019, Board Chairman of Mandarin Plaza, developing the chain of shopping and entertainment centers Lavina, Blockbuster, Ocean Mall and others, Oleksandr Chernitsky told Interfax-Ukraine that the company is holding talks with TPS Real Estate on the acquisition of the Ocean Plaza mall.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, who arrived in Kyiv on a visit, met with President-elect of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. “Held very good meeting with Ukraine’s President-elect V. Zelensky in Kyiv: congratulated on his land sliding victory in Presidential elections, reaffirmed Lithuania’s continuous steadfast support to Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, reforms, European & Euro-Atlantic integration,” he wrote on Twitter. He also published a joint photo with Zelensky in the social network.
As reported, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius is on a working visit to Ukraine on April 25-26. The purpose of his visit to Kyiv is to deepen bilateral cooperation in the framework of the Ukrainian-Lithuanian strategic partnership.
Sergiy Tigipko’s TAS group of companies has bought part of the Arena City retail and office center at 1-3/2a Baseina Street in Kyiv.
According to the NV Business edition, with reference to several sources, the group of Tigipko acquired the center with an area of 14,000 square meters for $13-15 million. The deal did not include several premises on the ground floor that were previously sold.
According to the source, Dmytro Firtash’ Group D, which owned the asset, put it up for sale in 2018 at the initial price of about $20 million.
According to Olha Nasonova, the director general of Restaurant Consulting company, rental rates for offices in Arena City can reach $25-30 per square meter, for food courts from $50 per square meter.
TAS Group was founded in 1998. It has assets in financial and industrial sectors, agriculture, real estate, pharmaceuticals, and venture projects.
The Glovo international service plans to open a cook-room in Kyiv in August 2019, Glovo Senior Manager in Ukraine Dmytro Rasnovsky has said.
“Today, restaurants in the center of Kyiv are not coping with orders. We need kitchens from which restaurants could take orders. Glovo has such a project, the Glovo cook-room, when we find a room, lease it and prepare it. Then we offer that they be occupied by certain partners, which, for example, have exclusive contracts or good accessibly. I admit that in August we will open the first cook-room and put three or four non-competing partners there,” he told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Sup Day Forum 2019.
In this case, Glovo considers different locations.
“On the one hand, we see a need for the center of Kyiv, on the other – in Troyeschyna district, where there are few places [restaurants] from where you can order food. We will carry out the analysis and make a decision,” Rasnovsky said.
In this case, according to him, restaurants often do not cope with the number of online orders. This trend is becoming a “bottleneck” in the food delivery market.
“Kitchens are not ready for such a number of orders, they do not have the capacity to provide such a flow. Restaurants were planned for a certain number of orders, and Internet delivery expands the demand for their services. Startups that provide infrastructure for so-called dark kitchens appear in the world,” Rasnovsky said.
According to him, cook-rooms are a profitable option of “expansion” for those areas of Kyiv, where it is unprofitable to open a restaurant.
“And the ability to open a cook-room under a familiar brand changes everything,” the manager of Glovo said.
Uber plans to launch the Uber Shuttle pilot project, a servicing to book a seat in a minibus that will drive from one pre-arranged location along a fixed route to another pre-arranged location within the city, in Kyiv in May 2019, the press service of Uber has told Interfax-Ukraine.
This service is also available in Cairo (Egypt) and Monterrey (Mexico).
Uber said that during the pilot project, customers will be able to book a seat in the minibus via the Uber application.
“Uber strives to become a multimodal platform for personal mobile services, giving users access to various modes of transport with the click of a button, so that they can move around the city without need of having their own car. With the pilot launch of Uber Shuttle in Kyiv, we offer the experience of using this service to users here in Ukraine,” the press service said, citing Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Head at Uber Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty.
The company said that the main goal of the pilot project is the use of Uber technology, to offer Ukrainian users another alternative way to travel around the city.
“This pilot project is part of Uber’s mobility strategy available on the platform,” Uber said.
Gore-Coty also said that Ukraine is very important for Uber, and the company will continue investing in the country, promoting new products on the Ukrainian market.
A large discussion on land reform took place during the Ukrainian Land Forum in Kyiv. Representatives of 490 agricultural enterprises from all over Ukraine took part in this event (of these 115 livestock complexes and 79 thsd of cattle stock). Their total land fund is 4.5 million hectares. The organizer of the forum is the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC).
Four contestants for the presidency, who gained 65% of population’s votes during the first round of elections — Yulia Tymoshenko, Yurii Boiko, Ihor Smeshko and Oleksandr Danyliuk (represented the team of Volodymyr Zelenskii) arrived to communicate with agrarians on land market establishment. People’s deputies, acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, international experts joined the Forum as well.
Presidential candidates and representatives of their teams expressed their vision of introducing land market in Ukraine.
Alexander Danyliuk, who represented Presidential candidate Vladimir Zelenskii, noted that their team is for creating a transparent land market.
Yurii Boiko has voiced that state support for small and medium agricultural business is necessary when opening the land market.
Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the authorities should create conditions of maximum preference for the development of small and medium agricultural producers.
In Ihor Smeshko’s view the land should belong to the people of Ukraine and be sold only to the citizens of Ukraine. The state’s task ‘number one’ is to support the medium-scale producer.
During the Forum, a deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Agrarian Policy and Land Relations Oleksandr Bakumenko presented four variants of the land market establishment, which were developed by the Committee to the Forum.
According to the presented options, citizens of Ukraine only will be able to buy the land. It is proposed to introduce the land market either both for physical and for legal entities, or to do so on a step-by-step basis for several years. The question of hectares to be purchased remains open. In the phased variants it is proposed to provide an opportunity to buy up to 20 hectares to private individuals. And legal entities – up to 200 hectares in the first three years, from the fourth year – maximum 500 hectares, and in the future – up to 20 thousand hectares. Another option suggests in the first three years already to allow the legal entities to buy up to 500 hectares of land, and from the fourth year — to 20 thousand hectares.
During the Forum agrarians could express their view on various aspects of land market establishment by interactive voting.
Thus, the lion’s share of respondents — 66.9% — convinced that competing with holdings, officials and oligarchs for the current land bank will be impossible.
According to the audience, if the land market in Ukraine will be introduced, the right of sale should be distributed on:
– State land and municipal property at first, and then on land of private property — 29.84%;
– the land of private property only — 21.59%;
– the land of private and municipal property at once — 26.03%.
The majority of voters (51,5%) agreed on the idea that private individuals should have the right to buy land at first, and after the end of transitional period this right should gain simultaneously private and juridical entities-agricultural producers whose owners are exclusively private individuals-citizens Of Ukraine. Another 22.46% of voters believe that the right to purchase land should have only private individuals -citizens Of Ukraine. Opinions concerning the maximum size of the land area for agriculture “in one hands” of the private individual divided: 38.51% support “to 200 hectares”, and 34.47% — “to 500 hectares.” Actually, as for the property of legal entities (and related persons). Thus, the maximum size of up to 5000 hectares was supported by 51.52%, and to 10000 hectares — 22.42%.
