Finance

Thursday, June 17

Ukrposhta will have installed 7,500 point of sale terminals by the end of next month, said the state postal company. This will make Ukrposhta the fifth largest user of POS terminals in Ukraine. In addition to bringing cashless payments to small towns in Ukraine, the POS terminals allow...

Ukrposhta sees its expansion into postal banking as a key to democratizing finance in Ukraine. Over the last decade, Ukrposhta figures have illustrated that the number of bank branches in Ukraine dropped by 65%, to 7,134. Over the same time, the number of post offices fell by only 22%, to 10,70...

Wednesday, June 16

President Zelenskiy said that two large state companies – power producer Centrenergo and chemicals producer Odesa Port Plant – will be auctioned online auction in the coming months . “Centrenergo is completely ready,” he told reporters, speaking of a company that has 23 power plants across the country. Centrenergo has an installed capacity of 7,690 MW – equivalent to half the ca...

Returning to the rhetoric of two years ago, Zelenskiy said: “My will is that the state should get rid of everything as much as possible. I agree with the position of the Europeans and the United States that the state is not the coolest manager....

In a second step, the nation’s 11 busiest stations are being prepared for long-term lease under concession contracts with strategic investors . Already six foreign and domestic investors have shown interest in the concessions, scheduled to start in 2023. “What do we see at the exit?” asked Yuryk. “Citizens and guests of our country, arrivin...

The Finance Ministry raised almost $300 million – in hryvnia and euros – in its weekly bond auction yesterday , the Ministry reports on Facebook. With yields little changed, sales totaled slightly less than half the amount sold last week. For hryvnia bonds, yields ranged from 10.97% for 1-year bonds, to 12.59...

Facing stagflation – stagnant growth and 9.5% inflation – analysts are split on whether Ukraine’s central bank will raise its prime rate tomorrow, or keep it at 7.5% , a Reuters poll indicates. The government had forecast a 4% growth spurt in 2021, but the economy shrank 2% in the first quarter. Seven out of 15 analysts polled by Reuters think high inflation will ...

Attracted by high interest rates, international investors increased their investment in Ukrainian government bonds by $377 million this month, prompting the central bank to buy $415 million. Despite the purchases, Ukraine’s currency s...

Ukrainians received about $400 million in profit from bitcoin investments, ranking 10th highest in the world, according to the Digital Transformation Ministry, citing a study by Chainanalysis. The top three were: US – $4.1 billion; China – $1.1 billion; and Japan – $900 million. Six months a...

Tuesday, June 15

Ukravtodor, the state highway agency, plans to issue its first dollar Eurobonds under a sovereign guarantee , reports Interfax-Ukraine. Local and international banks including JP Morgan, Dragon Capital and Ukreximbank are arranging the placement. Calls to investors start today for the bonds, which have tenu...

International investors have spent more than $315 million buying Ukraine’s government bonds last week, the largest amount in almost two years. ICU writes of last week’s auction: “It appears that foreigners purchased more than half of last week’s issuance in local currency.” Foreigners now hold ov...

Foreign purchases contributed to the hryvnia appreciating 1% against the dollar last week and 5.2% so far this year. To hold the line at 27 hryvnia to the dollar, the National Bank of Ukraine bought $375 million in dollars last week. ICU writes: “This week, we expect foreigners to invest more funds in local-currency...

Kinstellar is acquiring DLA Piper’s Ukraine practice . With 60 lawyers, including 10 partners, Kinstellar is now among the largest law firms in Ukraine. Kinstellar reports: “The merger strengthens our key practice areas, including corporate/M&A, ban...

Monday, June 14

The successful online auction of Lviv Correctional Colony № 48 is to be the first privatization of 35 shuttered prisons put up for sale in a program started this year. Two prison sales – one in Odesa and one in Irpin, a northern suburb of Kyiv – failed due to a lack of bidders. Justice Minister Denys Mayluska hopes the Lviv sale will generate investor interest. A se...

Ukreximbank, the nation’s third largest bank, is putting up for electronic auction 16 real estate properties put up for collateral a decade ago , before the financial crisis of 2014-2016. At the June 29 auction on SETAM trading system, properties for sale range from a building facing Kyiv’s historic Sofiyiska Square to a one-room apartment in...

Ukrzaliznytsia is selling two bears to a Dutch zoo as part of a program started last month to sell ‘non-core’ assets. The bears were housed at the Zaporizhia Children’s Railway. They are being transferred to the Ouwehands zoo in Rhenen, Utrecht. The zoo recently reopened its renovated ‘Bear Forest’. “I knew for...

The Deposit Guarantee Fund has completely liquidated 51 of the 97 banks declared insolvent during the 2014-2016 banking crisis, Svitlana Rekrut, Managing Director of the Fund, tells the Kyiv Post. However, assets frozen for a decade have depreciated sharply, presenting obstacles for the Fund to repay its $4.3 billion debt to t...

The Deposit Guarantee Fund raised a record $37 million last month in sales of liquidated banks , the Fund reports. Sales included: the 12-story Victoria hotel in Odesa, for $5.1 million; and a central Kyiv office space, for $3.1 million. Reflecting pricing problems and legal clouds over propert...

With the hryvnia flirting with strengthening above 27 to the dollar, the central bank intervened last week, buying $375 million in foreign exchange. This was almost 10 times the amount bought by the National Bank of Ukraine in the first week of June. On the supply side, high commodity prices – notably iron and grain – are flooding Ukraine with dol...

China-Ukraine trade during the first quarter grew by one third yoy, to $4.2 billion , the Economy Ministry press office reported after Ministry officials met Thursday with China’s ambassador to Ukraine, Fan Xianrong. Trade Representative Taras Kachka said: “The Chinese side is intere...

Friday, June 11

The government is working on a green bond to help repay the nearly $1 billion in Ukrenergo’s overdue debt to solar and wind producers, said Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko. But Baher El-Hifnawi of the World Bank and Mark Magaletsky of the EBRD cautioned that their institutions would only contribute to a bailout package ...

Italy-Ukraine trade increased by 39% during the first five months of 2021 to $2.1 billion , Prime Minister Shmygal said. Italy’s export credit agency After a 6-year break, Italy’s export credit agency, SACE, recently resumed lending to Italian companies under contracts with Ukrainian compa...

In the first five months of the UK-Ukraine free trade deal, bilateral trade has jumped by 41.5% yoy, to $885 million, reports Taras Kachka, Ukraine Trade Representative. Trade liberalization came into effect on Jan. 1, the first day of Brexit.

Thursday, June 10

Inflation in May increased by 9.5% in annual terms, up from 8.4% in April , the State Statistics Service reports. This is almost double last year’s inflation rate of 5%. Last month, the biggest yoy increases were: natural gas +162%; sunflower oil +75%; and sugar +67%. The b...

With inflation now well above Ukraine’s 7.5% prime rate, the National Bank of Ukraine is expected to increase interest rates at its next board meeting, on June 17. The central bank had forecast inflation this year at 8%.

The Finance Ministry’s weekly auction raised $700 million in hryvnia and equivalent, 20% more than last week’s auction . Hryvnia rates were virtually unchanged Tuesday: 6 months – 9%; 14 months – 11.2%; 18 months – 11.3%; 2-year – 12.05%; and 3-year – 12.3% per annum. The novelty was a 5-...

International buyers are back in the market, ICU has reported. “Last week foreign investors purchased UAH 2bn [$74 million] of new bills in addition to reinvesting funds they received from redemptions,” the investment group wrote of last week’s ...

Two years after Ukraine started to cooperate with Clearstream, external investment in government bonds has doubled, the share of public debt in national currency has increased to 39%, and 5-year bonds have won acceptance, the Finance Ministry reports. In a press conference last week with representatives of the Luxe...

Although down 24% from the February 2020 peak, this current investment accounts for almost 10% of the bonds in circulation. Ministry officials say that foreign investment contributed to the sharp decrease in weighted average yield on hryvnia bonds...

Wednesday, June 9

Defending the measure, Serhiy Bykov writes on Facebook: “Current procurement rules close the opportunities for international players to enter the market, which can immediately bring money.” The new, streamlined approach, he...

International development banks are lending a total $130 million to two Ukrainian state banks which will provide finance for small and medium enterprises . The EBRD yesterday approved a loan of up to €25 million to ‘green-focused’ projects of SMEs. The World Bank is lending $100 million to Ukreximbank for it finance program supporting export oriented S...

A international standard stock market and commodity exchange – NEXT-UA — is the goal of a Memorandum of Understanding signed Monday by the Cabinet of Ministers with EBRD, USAID, and AmCham Ukraine. “NEXT-UA will facilitate the integration of Ukraine’s markets into the international ec...

Prime Minister Shmyhal said: “The stock market is one of the best tools for leveraging domestic and foreign investment in the real sector of the economy.”

The National Bank of Ukraine yesterday approved Gerhard Bösch to be Chairman of state-owned PrivatBank . Bösch, an Austrian financier, comes to the helm of Ukraine’s biggest and most profitable bank after 15 years at Raiffeisen Bank Aval, the Ukrainian unit of the Austrian bank. During his three-year t...

Monday, June 7

Exports are up by 25%, or almost $5 billion, for the first five months of this year , Prime Minister Shmygal writes on Facebook. Exports to China, Turkey, UK and US were up almost 50%, compared to January-May 2020. By contrast, exports of goods during the first quarter were up only 1...

Measured in tons, export cargo was down 18.6% to 43 million tons , for the first five months of this year, compared to the same period in 2020, reports Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. Handling of ore dropped 14%, to 15.7 million tons. Handling of grain was down 33%,...

Belarus airlines – basically Belavia’s jets – are banned from landing in the EU or overflying EU airspace, under an EU decision that took effect Saturday. This coming weekend, more Belarus sanctions, possibly a ban on bond purchases, are to be discussed at a meeting in Cornwall, England of the G7 – US, UK,...

Friday, June 4

Tech giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Bloomberg, Alibaba, and Booking.com would have to pay Ukraine’s 20% VAT tax when providing sales to customers in Ukraine, under a bill approved yesterday by the Rada at second reading. An explanatory note accompanying the bill says the current tax-free regime discriminates ag...

ATB, the supermarket chain, generated the most revenue of all companies in Ukraine last year, according to State Tax Service figures analyzed by Liga.net. About $4.5 billion flowed through the cash registers of the 1,200 stores of the national chain last year. Despite the recession, ATB’s net ...

Thursday, June 3

Faced with big bond redemptions this week, the Finance Ministry on Tuesday made the biggest bond sales of the year — $358.6 million and 15.9 million hryvnia, or $580 million. Interest rates were virtually unchanged on the hryvnia bonds, ranging from 8.42% for 3-month bonds and 12.3% on 3-year bonds. For doll...

Concorde Capital’s Evgeniya Akhtyrko writes: “The recent placements of new local bonds do practically nothing for financing government spending because of the growing load of local bond redemptions.”

Wednesday, June 2

Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest private company saw its EBITDA increase almost four times in the first quarter yoy, to nearly $1.5 billion . Rising high iron and steel prices, saw revenues in the vertically integrated steel company increase by 43% yoy, to $3.6 billion. In a sign that the world recovery is spreading beyond China, sales to...

Tuesday, June 1

The average nominal salary in April 2021 was up almost 30% yoy, reaching the hryvnia equivalent of $493, reports that State Statistics Service. This is 2.3 times the minimum monthly wage of $218, a level largely used to set pensions. With Ukraine’s average salary ...

Concorde Capital’s Evgeniya Akhtyrko writes: “The growth of wages will be boosted by economic revival and rising demand for labor.”

Of the 109 companies managed by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, 20 state companies are to be liquidates, 15 are to be reorganized and three are to be prepared for privatization , Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Khalimon tells Interfax-Ukraine. By the end of this year, he has predicted that the number of companies under the Defense Ministry will be cut to 42.

Ukraine made it first payment – $41 million – for GDP warrants issued as part of the public debt restructuring in 2015. The trigger for yesterday’s repayment was Ukraine’s GDP growth of 3.2% in 2019. Last summer, seeing the 3% barrier falling, the Finance Ministry bought back $330 million of the warrants, about 11% of ...

Monday, May 31

Austrian banker Gerhard Bösch has been appointed chairman of the management board of PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest and most profitable bank , the bank reports. For the last 15 years, Bösch has worked in high positions for Raiffeisen Bank Aval, the Ukrainian unit of the Austrian bank. As head of PrivatBank, Bösch is expected to prepare the...

To inject $100 million into Ukrainian small and medium sized business, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved Saturday additional financing for its COVID-19 response project first approved one year ago. Ukreximbank will be the borrower and implementing ag...

US State Department is asking Congress for $255 million in aid to Ukraine for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. “U.S. assistance will strengthen Ukraine’s ability to counter Russian aggression, reads the Ukraine section in the 168-page Congressional Budget Justification. “Funding will accelerate reforms to addr...

Wednesday, May 26

Seeking to get Ukraine’s weapons sales to Pakistan back on track, Ukroboronprom demonstrated the newest Oplot tank and the Skif anti-tank system last week in Kharkiv to Pakistani General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The de facto ‘CEO of Pakistan’, Gen. Bajwa is army chief of ...