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integrated agricultural holding engaged in crop farming and sugar production in Ukraine, the multinational lender said in a statement on October 24. The funds will be used to finance the development, construction and operation of a 6 MW biogas plant located in the Kirovograd region of central Ukraine. "The EBRD is promoting investments in innovative technology and best practices associated with the use of agricultural waste in Ukraine by providing sustainable energy financing in line with its strategy for the country," the statement reads. The financing package will consist of a €13mn loan from the EBRD and a €2mn concessional loan from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) designed to support renewable energy and technology aimed at reducing carbon intensity. This will be the first project supported under the Ukraine Agribusiness Waste Residues Window, funded by the CTF.
9.2.7 TMT corporate news
Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railway) is going to start selling freight railcar leasing rights using an electronic tender system as of November, the company’s press service reported on October 8. This is the second stage of the railway monopoly's transition to market pricing of railcar rents after rates were deregulated in January 2018. About 5% of each type of railcar will be rented via electronic auctions, which will define the price for all the railcars. “In this way, we will secure a transparent and viable mechanism of market pricing of railcar use,” the company’s CEO Yevhen Kravtsov told journalists. Following the January deregulation, Ukrainian Railway introduced new railcar rental rates that exceeded the regulated prices by 2.5-3.5x, depending on railcar type. Ukrainian Railway’s total revenue from freight transportation comes from three components: infrastructure (regulated), locomotives (regulated) and railcars (deregulated). “Market pricing of its railcar component will enable the company to increase flexibility in its pricing. In turn, this will allow the company to be more competitive in the niches where private railcar providers are active, as well as earn additional seasonal profits in the niches where demand for railcars is excessive. The should translate into better P&L from cargo services,” Alexander Paraschiy of Concorde Capital said in a note. “At the same time, success will depend on whether the auction-based prices will indeed reflect the market. In particular, it’s hard to say whether the auction pricing of only 5% of total railcars will be indicative of the entire market. In any case, such an initiative is a good step towards improving the company's transparency.”
Ukrainian leading telecoms company Ukrtelecom has won its defence against state-owned lender Ukreximbank , which sued the company for declining to buy out its parent company’s bonds, the Kyiv Post reported on October 26. The nation's Supreme Court declined Ukreximbank’s request to charge Ukrtelecom an additional UAH1.1bn ($39mn). The court ruled that the lender can’t charge Ukrtelecom for bonds that the company never bought. At the same time, partly the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ukreximbank, obligating Ukrtelecom to pay an UAH795,344 fine with an additional UAH85,122 in interest. The court upheld the rulings of lower courts. In 2015, Ukrtelecom, owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, pledged to buy out the bonds of its parent company ESU, for UAH2bn, from two state-owned banks - Ukreximbank and Oschadbank. ESU, the parent company of Ukrtelecom, is a subsidiary of System Capital Management (SCM), controlled by the oligarch. However, Ukrtelecom wasn’t able to afford the buyout, with the State Property Fund (SPF) disallowing the sale of Ukrtelecom’s subsidiary Trimob to MTC Ukraine (Vodafone Ukraine), back in 2016. Trimob was part of
71 UKRAINE Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com