Page 73 - UKRRptDec18

Q3 profit down by 24% year over year, to $14mn , the company reports. The company’s Q3 revenue increased by 6.5%, to $118mn. The subscriber base decreased by 4.3%, to 19.9mn active SIM cards. Six months into 4G, Vodaphone’s 4G network covers almost 40% of the country’s population.
The Kyiv Economic Court has rejected the claim of the State Property Fund (SPF) that demanded the cancellation of the sales-purchase agreement of a 92.79% stake in the nation's leading telecoms company Ukrtelecom in 2011 . Ukrtelecom was privatised in March 2011, when an unknown company called ESU paid UAH10.6bn ($1.3bn) for its 92.79% stake. In2013,the S ystemCapitalManagement (SCM)businessgroupofUkraine’s richest oligarch Rinat Akhmetov purchased ESU and became the owner of the privatised Ukrtelecom stake.
9.2.9 Utilities corporate news
In a first step toward building 200 MW of solar plants in southern Ukraine by 2020, Vasily Khmelnitsky’s UDP Renewables has commissioned an 18.3 MW plant in Henichesk, Kherson. Located near the Sea of Azov, about 25 km north of Crimea, the $18mn plant used 65,340 Jinko Solar panels imported from China. Khmelnitsky said of his ambitious plan: “We continue to develop in the “green” energy sector, as this is one of the most interesting areas of business in Ukraine today.”
Ebitda of Ukraine's leading coal and power holding DTEK jumped by 28% year-on-year to UAH19bn in January-September , according to estimates of Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital published on November 29. The company generated UAH119.8bn in net revenue in January-September, or 20% more y/y, according to its abridged non-audited report. Its operating profit doubled y/y to UAH9bn and net profit was UAH3.4bn (vs. a UAH1bn loss a year before). DTEK's Ebitda margin, therefore, increased by 1pp to 15.9% in January-September. It generated cash from operations (before working capital changes) in the amount of UAH19.1bn, up 22% y/y. The company’s net debt shrunk 2% YTD to UAU60.4bn as of end-September, and its Net Debt to LTM Ebitda ratio decreased to 2.1-fold from 2.6-fold as of beginning of 2018. Concorde's Alexander Paraschiy believes that the loss of control over heat and power plants by Kyivenergo, DTEK’s subsidiary, will result in slowed revenue growth for DTEK in the fourth quarter of 2018, but should further improve its profitability. "Some pressure on profits could have resulted from the switch of DTEK’s Luhanska power plant from coal to expensive natural gas, but this emergency situation has turned out to be short-lived (over the last week, the plant switched fully to burning coal)," he added on a note on November 29. "That said, we see DTEK will continue to improve its P&L and leverage indicators in the coming quarters."
DTEK’s Luhanska Power Plant coal stockpiles depleted. The Luhanska Thermal Power Plant of DTEK Energy has run out of coal stockpiles and has had to switch to burning natural gas, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on November 6, citing Luhansk regional deputy head Yuriy Klymenko. Klymenko said that the plant can burn both coal and natural gas, but coal is much cheaper. Coal supplies to Luhanksa TPP can be only made by railway from Russian territory, but the Russian side has been blocking supplies since October. Due to higher costs related to burning natural gas, Luhanska TPP has asked for permission to raise its electricity rate just as the heating season
73 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com