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9.2.7​ TMT corporate news
In the second quarter of 2020, Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest telco, increased its total revenue by 6.8% ​compared to the same period in 2019, to UAH6bn ($216mn), the company said on Aug. 6. In Q2 2020 Kyivstar increased its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 11.5% compared to the same period last year, to UAH4.075bn. EBITDA margin rose by 2.8 percentage points (p.p.), to 67.8%. Revenues from mobile communication services grew by 6.6%, to UAH5.59bn. In addition, the operator said that in the second quarter of 2020, minutes of use (MoU) increased by 12.2%, from 571 in the same period last year to 641 in Q2 2020. In the same period, mobile Internet use grew 54.3%, to 5.0 gigabytes per subscriber, while average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 9.4%. The subscriber base in the second quarter of 2020 was 25.4mn. The subscriber base of the Home Internet service expanded by 9% compared to Q2 2019, and exceeded 1mn users. Fixed-line Internet traffic also increased.
Sweden’s Embracer Group is paying $36mn to acquire Ukraine’s 4A Games.​ Founded by three Ukrainian developers in Kyiv in 2006, 4A Games has grown to have 150 employees between Kyiv and the company’s current headquarters in Malta. With Embracer, 4A will continue to develop its Metro which take place in post-apocalyptic Russia devastated by a nuclear war. If 4A meets defined performance targets, Embracer commits to paying the 4A principals a maximum of $35mn within five years.
Kyivstar, plans to invest $180mn over the next two years to expand its 4G mobile Internet service to reach 90%​ of Ukraine’s population, says Kyivstar President Oleksandr Komarov. In the last six week, Kyivstar has connected 765 settlements in western Ukraine, bringing 4G Internet to 400,000 people.
Ukrtelecom, the nation’s largest Internet service provider, plans to invest $110mn to lay 50,000 km of fiber optic cable to bring broad band ​to 2.6mn rural Ukrainians by the end of 2022. The drive is part of a $200mn effort by Ministry of Digital Transformation to increase rural broadband connectivity from 65% today to 95% in 2024. Yuri Kurmaz, Ukrtelecom’s CEO, says 8,000 rural clinics and 16,000 schools do not have broadband connections, reports Broadband World News.
Vodafone Ukraine says that within two years its LTE 4G network should reach 90% of Ukraine’s population​. By the summer of 2024 Vodaphone high speed network should cover “roads of international and national importance.”
9.2.9 ​Utilities corporate news
The price of coal purchased by Ukraine's state-run electricity distributor Centrenergo from the local energy group DTEK ​should include transportation costs between the Ukrainian coalmine and the TPP, and not the cost of freight from the Netherlands, Centrenergo's acting head Oleksandr Korchynsky was quoted as saying by Interfax Ukraine on Aug. 6.
"Our position on pricing has not changed either: real transportation costs between the Ukrainian coalmine and the Ukrainian thermal power plant should be included in the import exchange parity, and not the cost of freight from the Netherlands," he said.
70​ UKRAINE Country Report​ September 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com