Business news from Ukraine

CAPITAL RETURNS OF UKRAINIAN BANKS EXCEED 20% IN 2019

Capital returns of banks in 2019 would considerably exceed 20%, which is the contingent standard for banking sectors of emerging countries, Director of the Financial Stability Department Vitaliy Vavryschuk said at the presentation of the financial stability report on Tuesday.
“In [the first] five months, the profit is already more than for entire 2018 [in January-May 2019, the net profit of banks was UAH 23.4 billion]. We are confident that capital returns of banks in 2019 would considerably exceed 20%, which is the contingent standard for banking sectors of emerging countries. We do not see any risks to profitability in subsequent quarters,” he said.
According to Vavryschuk, banks should use high profits to form the capital stock. In the coming years, capital requirements will be toughened substantially: it will be necessary to form capital conservation and systemic importance buffers (for systemically important banks), as well as to cover operational and market risks with capital (now only credit risk is covered with capital),” he said.

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INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION STARTS PROCEDURES FOR ENTERING UKRGASBANK’S CAPITAL

The Finance Ministry, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ukrgasbank have started assessing and structuring the financial took allowing IFC to enter the capital of this state-owned bank, the Finance Ministry reported.
“This is the most important stage in the implementation of the fundamentals of the strategic reform of the public banking sector… IFC’s entry into Ukrgasbank’s capital will be a powerful signal for international investors and will contribute to the further development of the banking system in general,” Finance Minister Oksana Markarova said.
The Finance Ministry said that the transition to this stage became possible as a result of the successful fulfillment of the terms of the tripartite memorandum of understanding signed in November 2017 to support the privatization (sale) of the bank by the ministry and Ukrgasbank.
According to the memorandum, IFC helped Ukrgasbank to strengthen corporate governance, ensure its operational independence, and further improve its stable banking model based on commercial viability.
Successful cooperation between the state-owned bank and IFC has already allowed for more than 145 projects in the field of clean energy using biofuels, hydropower, solar and wind energy with a total capacity of 866 MW, which is a quarter of all renewable energy facilities in Ukraine. Thanks to these projects, CO2 emission reduction has reached more than 1 million tonnes annually.
As reported, in November 2017, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance agreed on cooperation with IFC in the process of privatization of Ukrgasbank. The memorandum of cooperation also envisaged a possibility of entering the capital of the bank by IFC to support its sale. The investment will depend on several factors, including the outcome of the due diligence of the bank.
Ukrgasbank was established in 1993 and the state represented by the Ministry of Finance owns 94.9% of its shares. Since 2015, the bank has been included in the list of state-owned facilities of strategic importance for the economy and national security.

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TASСOMBANK RAISES CHARTER CAPITAL BY 57.3% DUE TO MERGER OF VS BANK

TAScombank (Kyiv) has increased its charter capital by UAH 420 million, or 57.3%, to UAH 1.153 billion due to the merger of VS Bank (Lviv), TAScombank said in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
According to the report, Alkemi Limited reduced its share in the charter capital of TAScombank to 63.5% from 99.9%. At the same time, Bailican Limited became the owner of 36.4% of the shares. These companies are owned by Sergiy Tigipko, who indirectly owns 99.93065% of TAScombank.
As reported, in mid-October-2018 TAScombank and VS Bank completed the merger process.
At the beginning of November 2017, the National Bank of Ukraine allowed Tigipko to indirectly purchase a 99.9% stake in VS Bank. The direct buyer was the Cypriot company Bailican Limited. The deal was closed in early December 2017.

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CAPITAL INVESTMENTS IN UKRAINE 20% UP

Capital investments in Ukraine in January-September 2018 increased by 19.9%, while in January-September 2017 by 20.7%, the State Statistics Service has reported. Capital investments in Ukraine in 2017 increased by 22.1%, in the first nine months of the year by 20.7% and in the first half of the previous year by 22.5%. According to the service, in January-September 2018 some UAH 337 billion of capital investments was used (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol and Donbas).
In terms of regions, the largest increase in capital investments in January-September 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 was recorded in Donetsk (84.9%), Vinnytsia (42.4%), Dnipropetrovsk (34.6%), Chernihiv (33.1%), Rivne (28.1%), Zakarpattia (24.7%), Cherkasy (17%), Zhytomyr (12.6%), Volyn (12.4%), Chernivtsi (by 11.1%), Kharkiv (by 9.5%), Ternopil (by 8.4%), Poltava (8.3%), Odesa (8.2%), Lviv (7.2%), Kyiv (5.3%) and Sumy (3.3%) regions and Kyiv City (by 35.2%).
According to statistics, capital investment over the period fell in Mykolaiv (17.8%), Zaporizhia (16.7%), Khmelnytsky (9.5%), Kirovohrad (9%), Kherson (7.1%), Ivano-Frankivsk (3.9%), and Luhansk (3.1%) regions.
In terms of sectors, the growth of capital investments in January-September 2018 was recorded in postal and courier activities (a 2.7-fold rise), arts, sports and entertainment (a 2.1-fold rise), telecom (59.9%), aviation (55.3%), IT and telecom (53.8%), warehouses and auxiliary operations in the transport sphere (53.7%), retail trade (50.7%), programming and provision of other IT services (49.7%), forestry and logging (38.5%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (37.14%), land and pipeline transport, as well as wholesale and retail trade (36%), financial and insurance activities (28.9%), publishing (28%), in the field of health care and social assistance (27.1%), industry (25.2%), public administration and defense, compulsory social insurance (24.6%), education (23.1%), agriculture, forestry and fisheries (7.7%).
The decline was seen in administrative and auxiliary servicing (18.9%), water transport (15%) and construction (10.8%).
Own funds of enterprises and organizations remain the main source of financing of capital investments, which account for 73.2% of the total volume of all investments.
A significant share of capital investments was made in machinery, equipment and vehicles – 47.2%, buildings and structures – 42.8% of all investments.

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SBERBANK (UKRAINE) PLANS TO BOOST CHARTER CAPITAL BY 66% TO UAH 20.7 BLN

The only shareholder in public joint-stock company Sberbank (Kyiv) – Sberbank (Russia) – has decided to increase the charter capital of the Ukrainian subsidiary bank by UAH 8.3 billion or 66.6%, to UAH 20.766 billion via the placement of additionally issued shares, the bank has reported in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market. According to the report, the decision was made on May 11.
The bank will privately place the shares with a face value of UAH 1. Sberbank (Kyiv) was founded in 2001. The bank ranked 9th among 84 operating banks as of January 1, 2018,in terms of total assets worth UAH 42.363 billion, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.

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