Business news from Ukraine

FRANCE’S LEROY MERLIN PLANS TO OPEN FIRST HYPERMARKET IN ODESA

Leroy Merlin Ukraine LLC (Kyiv), developing the DIY hypermarket chain of the French brand Leroy Merlin in the country, in spring 2019 plans to open a first hypermarket outside Kyiv – in the Riviera shopping and entertainment center in Odesa.
The retailer wrote on its Facebook page that the company is looking for employees to work in the Leroy Merlin hypermarket in Odesa, which will be opened soon.
The fifth hypermarket of the Leroy Merlin chain in Ukraine (four operating in Kyiv) will be located in the Riviera shopping and entertainment center in Odesa, Senior Marketing Advisor at Riviera mall Yan Shkuro told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The opening of Leroy Merlin is scheduled for early spring. There is no the exact date. The total area of the premises is 10,500 square meters, without a greenhouse. Active construction of residential complexes is seen near the mall. There are over 60 residential complexes, and demand on construction materials is high,” Shkuro said.
Leroy Merlin Ukraine LLC was registered in 2008. As of October 31, 2017 the company had four Leroy Merlin stores in Kyiv.

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UAH 1.1 BLN TO BE SENT FOR ODESA AIRPORT RECONSTRUCTION IN 2019

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry has approved the assignment of UAH 1.1 billion in 2019 for reconstruction of the airfield of municipal enterprise Odesa International Airport, including for construction of a new runway with the synthetic covering and taxiways. “The mechanism of financing the implementation of the program approved by the State Agency of Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine allows starting the implementation of the project at once in line with Ukrainian legislation,” the enterprise said in an explanatory note to the financial plan of state-owned enterprise (SOE) Directorate for Construction of Odesa International Airport for 2019.
The financial assistance will be received from the SOE managed by the State Agency of Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine, which was authorized to act as the customer of the state targeted program on development of airports for the period until 2023. According to the explanatory note, the reviewed indicators are UAH 500 million for 2017, UAH 1.179 billion for 2018 and UAH 1.109 billion for 2019. The capital investment in the financial plan for 2019 is planned at UAH 874.25 million. Net profit expected in 2019 is UAH 83,000, and revenue – UAH 13.31 million.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in July 2018 decided to send UAH 253 million to build a runway in the Odesa airport.

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CONSTRUCTION IN UKRAINE IN AUG 1.1% DOWN, HIGHEST INCREASE IS RECORDED IN ODESA (BY 43.7%)

The volume of completed construction works in Ukraine in August 2018 decreased by 1.1% compared to August 2017, whereas growth in July 2018 from July 2017 was 9.7%. The report does not include data from temporarily occupied territories, namely the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and partly Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said. The volume of completed construction works in August 2018 from July 2018 decreased by 6.4% (according to seasonally adjusted data, it decreased by 6.9%), whereas there was a 5.8% fall in July 2018 from June 2018.
Residential and nonresidential construction declined in August 2018 from August 2017, while the construction of engineering facilities was on the rise. According to unadjusted data, residential construction saw a 13.3% decline, while the decline of nonresidential construction was 5.4%. The construction of engineering facilities increased 6.4%.
The construction of residential buildings in August 2018 from July 2018 decreased by 9.9%, the construction of nonresidential buildings grew by 5.5%, engineering facilities fell by 10%.
In January-August 2018, a decrease in construction work compared to the same period of 2017 was recorded in 11 regions of Ukraine and Kyiv city, including in Luhansk (by 43.7%, to UAH 233.2 million), Sumy (by 20.9%, to UAH 635.7 million) and Zakarpattia (by 17.8%, to UAH 710.5 million) regions.
The highest increase in completed construction works in the eight months ending August 2018 was recorded in Odesa (by 43.7%, to UAH 9.597 billion) Khmelnytsky (by 32.5%, to UAH 1.663 billion) and Ivano-Frankivsk (by 31.4%, to UAH 1.7 billion) regions.
In Kyiv, the volume of construction work in the eight months ending August 2018 fell by 3.7%, to UAH 16.741 billion.

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SPF WAITING FOR NEW TENDER TO SELECT SUPPLIER OF GAS ON TOLLING TERMS TO ODESA PORT-SIDE PLANT

Odesa Port-Side Plant in October would announce a new tender to select a supplier of natural gas for processing on tolling terms, acting Head of the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine Vitaliy Trubarov has said.
“As are as I understand, the tender will be announced again next month and maybe there are economic entities, possibly foreign ones, that could supply their own gas, and the enterprise could operate,” he told journalists in Odesa on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by the ICU investment group.
The head of the SPF said that the final decision on the tender is taken by the company management, since representatives of the SPF are members of the supervisory board and do not have the right to interfere in the economic activities of the enterprise.
Trubarov said that in the current market conditions, the attraction of the supplier of gas on tolling terms is the only opportunity of operating for Odesa Port-Side Plant, since “gas that occupies more than 90% of the production cost is quite expensive, and the prices for end products are subsiding.”
According to him, the conditions of the tender to select the company are absolutely open, and the difficulty to select it is the absence of a large number of interested companies.
He said that the SPF is extremely interested that the plant is operating at the time of the privatization work.
“Our task in this matter is to build the work in a way that at the time of sale this asset was operating, alone or with the help of a supplier of natural gas for processing on tolling terms, but operating. Selling an idle enterprise, in my opinion, is a double problem,” the SPF head said, recalling the even more complex problem of toxic debts of the Odesa Port-Side Plant to the structure of Dmytro Firtash.

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ODESA PORT-SIDE PLANT SEEKS TO TERMINATE CONTRACT WITH LIBERTY GAS

PJSC Odesa Port-Side Plant plans to terminate a contract with Liberty Gas LLC, which won a tender to process gas on a tolling basis at the plant’s facilities, First Deputy Director of Odesa Port-Side Plant Mykola Schurikov has said.
“Liberty Gas has so far paid funds in the amount of $600,000 and UAH 5 million to the plant. Unfortunately, we received a letter from Liberty about the impossibility to fulfill the terms of the contract with the Odesa Port-Side Plant in the future. We begin the procedure for termination of the contract and are preparing a new tender to select a partner to work with the plant,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
According to the letter of Liberty Gas to the Odesa Port-Side Plant, posted by N Schurikov, the limited liability company transferred funds to start the plant and paid an advance for processing services. The company also entered into a contract with Vitol to supply gas and Keytrade AG to ship products.
“Unfortunately, today the global natural gas market has an unjustified increase in the cost of gas, and over the past several weeks the gas price has increased by more than 50%, which has a very negative effect on the economic performance under the contract between our enterprises,” the company said in the letter.
As reported, at the end of July, the Odesa Port-Side Plant, which has been idle since the end of April this year, signed a contract to process gas on the tolling basis at the facilities of the enterprise with Liberty Gas LLC, which won the corresponding tender. The launch was scheduled for the end of September.

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ODESA RIBAS HOTELS GROUP TO BUY HOTEL IN BUKOVEL

Ribas Hotels Group LLC (Odesa), the managing company of the national network of three- and four-star hotel and restaurant complexes, plans to complete the acquisition of a hotel in Bukovel, Ivano-Frankivsk region, by the end of 2018, and in two or three years to gain a foothold in all resort regions of Ukraine.
“We are positioning ourselves as a network of tourist-oriented hotels. Therefore the main focus is on Western Ukraine: in September we are buying a hotel in Bukovel, we are negotiating for the purchase of a 50% stake in one of the largest hotels in Lviv. We also plan to launch a hostel or an apart-hotel. We are looking to the hotels for rent in Kyiv,” Artur Lupashko, the founder of Ribas Hotels Group, told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the opening of a hotel in Bukovel is scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of 2019. The facility is unfinished and it will take eight or nine months to complete all the works.
Lupashko added the company also plans to enter the international market.
Ribas Hotels Group also plans to develop a franchise direction.
Ribas Hotels Group provides comprehensive management services, the services of exclusive booking, franchising, design.

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