Page 8 - bne IntelliNews Country Report: Ukraine Dec17

Ukrainians want the country to join Nato, but support for EU accession has fallen somewhat to 57%, reported the press services of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Klympush-Tsintsadze made the comments during a working visit to Paris and in a meeting with French presidential adviser on European affairs Clement Beaune.
Klympush-Tsintsadze said she was citing a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. In February of this year the same institute found that support for EU accession remained in the minority of 49%, but has risen by 4 percentage points so far this year. The share of respondents opposing EU accession has fallen from 28% to 17% over the same period.
The minister said the EU decision to allow visa-free travel has had a significant positive impact on attitudes towards the EU.
2.3 Russian metal companies leave Ukrainian market
Several of Russia's big metallurgical companies – Severstal, Rusal and Evraz - have sold a significant part of their Ukraine assets, as the breach between Ukraine and Russia grows ever deeper. The companies exited citing economic and security concerns for their operations in a country that is in an undeclared war with Russia.
In late October, Severstal said in a statement that the company's subsidiary, Cambay Services Ltd, has completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary Dealzone Holding Ltd, which holds a 98.6% stake in Ukraine's Dneprometiz.
"The sale of Dneprometiz will result in greater efficiency improvements at Severstal-Metiz and will further enhance the profitability of the Severstal group," the company's statement reads. "Dneprometiz operates at high levels of capacity utilisation and delivers strong financial results. At the same time, the asset is non-core to Severstal's business which is focused in Russia."
The company has not disclosed the terms of the deal. However, Maxim Khudalov at Acra Ratings believes that the plant together with its debts could be sold by Severstal for $30mn-$40mn, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on November 8.
The retreat represents a caving into the realities of the fraught relations between Ukraine and Russia. Known as the “near abroad” to Russians, Ukraine has been the first port of call when making foreign investments – and Russia has been a net exporter of capital for almost the entire post-Soviet era, investing more in other countries than it has received as foreign direct investment (FDI).
Going to Ukraine has been a no-brainer for most Russian companies as the two countries were the most economically integrated of any of the former Soviet republics and they are extremely close both culturally and linguistically. Moreover, given Ukraine’s almost total lack of reforms over the last two decades, assets remain extremely cheap, even to Russians, and yet the 45mn strong population is bigger than Poland’s 38mn.
8 UKRAINE Country Report December 2017 www.intellinews.com